Cage and Key
by Herudus
Summary: It is a man's own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways. Harry is prepared to do anything to protect those he still has left, even use the Dark Arts extensively if he has to. The question is; will he be the same person in the end as events, and a shadowy figure risk to change him? And how does the eccentric Daphne Greengrass fit in? Sixth year. HP/DG
1. Dreams and Nightmares

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter Universe and all the characters belong to J.K. Rowling.

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**Many thanks to TabiPrewett for Beta'ing this chapter!**

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**I want to announce/summarise a few things about this story:**

** \- The first half of the story focuses on Harry/Daphne and their developing relationship, with the second half becoming darker in response to the war.**

**\- My inspiration goes up and down so there may be periods where I don't update, followed by periods where I pump out multiple chapters in quick succession.**

**\- Early chapters (1-5ish) contain canon events/recaps with small changes, this disappears after those chapters.**

**\- A darker harry will come but no world shattering powers/heritages, although he will become strong, _eventually._**

**\- Daphne's personality is a lot warmer and more playful than the 'Ice Queen' she is usually portrayed as.**

**\- Genres would be: Adventure, Romance, Angst, Tragedy, Hurt/Comfort, Drama, and some Humor.**

**\- I rated it M for limes and battle scenes (for when they finally come) they might get****pretty gorey.**

**\- Slow, gradual buildup to all the events that happen. (No instant love or super Harry)**

**\- Harry should be pretty canon with changes happening to him as the story goes.**

**\- Changes will start happening later in the story: after chapt 5/6.**

**\- English is not my native language. I am looking for a Beta.**

**\- Multiple POV's (although most of it is Harry's)**

**\- Chapters have a length of 5k-9k length each.**

**\- Not everyone gets a happily ever after.**

**\- Harry will start learning the Dark Arts.**

**\- No Deathly Hallows.**

**\- No bashing.**

**This is my first Fanfiction, rather my first at writing anything. Any help and/or feedback is welcome.**

**Lastly; I hope you give it a shot!**

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They were being pursued, dark spells and curses flying past them, none lethal; their master wouldn't allow them, but still dangerous. It was morning, the temperature low, the sky clouded and the air moist. A thin shroud of fog enveloped them all.

Three pair of hurried footsteps, coupled with heavy breathing ran along damp grass, heavier footsteps behind them. They were on the Hogwarts grounds.

To the left was the ever-dark forest edge, whisps of movement being seen between the dark trees and bushes. To the right was the castle, once the perfect example of a peaceful setting with warm lights coming from many of the windows and towers. Half of which he had most likely passed on some day of broom flying to ease his worries.

However today he would not be able to outfly his problems.

The castle was in ruins, shattered windows could be seen everywhere, fire raging within the halls, whether it was fiend or normal fire he did not know, nor did it seem to matter much now.

The castle was burning and he could faintly hear screaming in the distance, each sounding different, already telling him stories of what was lost in them. But he didn't need to listen to them to know what was going on; both near and in the distance he saw the cause of the chaos and destruction, Death Eaters.

There were too many for anyone to take on. Some were chasing students in their own pace, enjoying the hunt, meanwhile firing spells from their wands in rapid succession. There were colors flying everywhere, a few of them connecting with their victims producing new screams before they fell to the ground, unmoving.

Pain in his chest reminded him of his own situation, his breathing had become heavier and his shirt was torn revealing that he had a large cut in his chest. Blood had seeped out from it into his shirt making it warm, wet and heavy. The other two pair of footsteps came from Ron and Hermione to his sides, they too looked no better than him; They were sweaty, dirty and bloody.

Hermione was clutching her forearm a dark spot could be seen on it, with ominous tendril like veins spreading forth, which ever so slowly seemed to be spreading out as if trying to infect more of her healthy flesh around it. Her hair was a reflection of the bushy volume it used to be, now lying flat with mud and blood. Her eyes however were still the same, fear stricken but still showing him that her head was working furiously to come up with some plan of escape.

Ron's shoulder seemed to be broken and from the hairline above his forehead trailed a line of blood across his face to his chin. His face was grim and determined, telling him that he was willing to fight to the end, even if that came quicker than any of us wanted.

They came to an abrupt halt when some distance before them dark smoke quickly molded together into the wizarding nightmare: Voldemort, a triumphant look on his face, twisting his snakelike features in something even less human.

The spells around them had stopped and from all around he saw death eaters closing in on them from behind, from the tree line of the forest and those on the grounds.

He wasn't going to stop here, maybe they could make some kind of distraction… run into the forest and apparate away. But would that even work? How far did the wards stretch? Had additional ones been directed all around the area? What kind of distraction would work in the first place to divert the attention of all these death eaters? Voldemort however, was not going to wait for him.

He uttered a single syllable with unbound glee in his voice, impatience shining in his red eyes.

"Kill the spare."

The same words of death were spoken again, the same words as that fateful night of the Triwizard Tournament.

Death eaters immediately fired their killing curses at Ron and Hermione, time seemed to slow, and he seemed powerless in moving against it.

Before he could either conjure something to take the blow or push them away from the cursed light to the safety on the ground did he notice that it was already over.

Their bodies made their final fall as their eyes became vacant, making them unrecognizable to the orbs of life they once were.

His knees fell silently into the soft ground near them still not comprehending what just happened, not wanting to comprehend. He simply stared back at their faces, unblinking as his vision began to blur by tears forming in his own eyes.

In the distance he could see everyone else having met the same fate: the whole Weasley family, Remus, Tonks, Moody, Neville, Luna…Sirius.

He could sense that Voldemort had his wand trained at his back, the tip of his wand glowing a sickly green, the light being softly reflected on each of their faces "So it ends, Harry Potter."

He made a startled gasp as his green eyes flew open in panic and darted around the room from his rigid and sweaty position on the bed. The rusty sprigs creaking a bit as his body moved losing all tension it had once the realization sank in.

"Just a dream, just a dream Harry" he spoke to reassure himself, his voice distant and shaky in between his labored breathing.

He kicked the remaining blankets of him, wishing to cool down more. His head still pounding from the events that happened, or rather didn't happen. Making sure it's not some cruel joke as he thought about the last time he saw his friends alive and well. In the Hogwarts express and the station. Some still had bandages on then from the battle at the Ministry.

Frustration and sadness welled up in him thinking about the events that had transpired in the ministry. Frustration at how it could have been avoided if he had not fallen for Voldemort's trick. Not rushing in dragging everyone along into the department or by taking his occlumency more seriously and Dumbledore for not telling him the prophecy.

Sadness at the loss of Sirius: the only family he had left and himself for being powerless in the course his life was taking him. Why did he have to be the one to face Voldemort? Because the prophecy said so? How was he able to resurrect himself in the first place? You can't just resurrect anyone with a ritual right? Because then they might as well dig up some old heroes to help them... No! He thought, rationalizing again. It can't be that simple, there has to be more to it than that.

Maybe he could get permission from Dumbledore to look into the restricted section for any information or ask Dumbledore directly, he thought begrudgingly. Feeling unsure what to think and feel of the Headmaster. He could partly understand why Dumbledore withheld the prophecy from him, wanting to protect him from the burden he could now feel weighing on his shoulders.

To have this knowledge at the age of eleven or twelve would surely have influenced his joyful experiences at Hogwarts. Well, despite the horrors he came to face each year. He thought somberly.

But having known it earlier definitely would have its merits: he could have spent more time preparing, gaining knowledge, getting training, keeping his friends out of harm's way and saving Sirius!

Sirius... the name filled his heart with guilt again. Why was everyone being taken from him? He rubbed his eyes, his hands coming up wet. From his thoughts or the dream? He mentally shook his head, hoping to shake some of the thoughts off. It didn't help much as his thoughts wondered back to his nightmare.

Is that how it's going to end, helpless in the events and powerless against his enemies? He shifted from his bed to a sitting position, the bed moaning in complaint. His hair and back still damp from his sweat, making his shirt cling to him uncomfortably.

He had to prevent that from happening.

I still have time right? I can't get Sirius back, but I can still protect those left. Get information, skills and spells. Survive, get through this and make something out of it. At the very least make sure the others do; after all he dragged them into this, thinking about the injuries they received at the ministry. Sirius died, but none of his friends did, but what about next time? A next time will definitely come it was only a matter of time. When will that be? Who would be next? Where would he stand in it? Would it be his fault again? Putting others at risk?

He sighed. I need to stop pondering, start acting.

He glanced at the clock, the pointer slowly ticking, momentarily mesmerizing him by the continuous ticking in his otherwise silent room.

It was nearly 11pm, Harry knew that Dumbledore would soon be there and pick him up to take him to the Weasleys'.

He looked at the note on the desk that Dumbledore had sent him a few days ago between the messes of the books, wraps and notes on his desk. Stating his time of arrival.

The ground looked less hectic; a few papers of the Daily Prophet could be seen with headlines reading: HARRY POTTER: THE CHOSEN ONE? SCRIMGEOUR SUCCEEDS FUDGE and PROTECTING YOUR HOME AND FAMILY AGAINST DARK FORCES, which were given out to any wizarding home now that the ministry had to acknowledge the return of the Dark Lord after coming close enough with him to quite nearly exchange 'pleasantries'.

The minute hand finally reached twelve announcing that it was eleven pm. Hedwig hooted once softly from her cage as to make sure he was truly awake.

Outside the nearby streetlamps went out, his window and room becoming a bit darker. He stood up and went to his window to look; sure enough a tall figure was walking up the garden path; his billowing clothes making him look wispy in the dark.

Time to go; he thought feeling a bit better about getting away from his room and the Dursleys.

He grabbed his trunk and Hedwig's cage, hearing the doorbell ring as he opened his door. Downstairs in the living room his Uncle Vernon shouted, "Who in the the blazes is calling at this time of night?" Harry gave the tiniest of grins. He hadn't bothered to warn the Dursleys that Dumbledore was coming.

He descended the stairs, dragging his trunk in one hand with heavy thuds and Hedwig in the other to keep her steady. He was at the door before his Uncle even managed to hoist himself up from his chair; gravity sure is a formidable opponent.

"Hello Professor", he greeted the aged wizard, standing in the doorway, letting the professor silently know he was ready to immediately leave.

"Good evening Harry," said Dumbledore, continuing after seeing his readiness. "I'm sorry to say that you will have to stretch your patience a bit longer, seeing that we still have a few things to discuss with your relatives." He said looking down his crooked nose, a smile tugging at his lips, making his beard move.

Harry moved back, giving Dumbledore room to enter and seeing that his Uncle had arrived from the living room, looking purple already. Whether it was from standing up or seeing Dumbledore he wasn't sure; probably both.

"I think myself correct in assuming that my visit was an expected one for you?" Dumbledore asked pleasantly.

"However, it is much too cold outside for an old man such as myself, please excuse me." He said stepping smoothly inside, and closing the door behind him.

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The whistle sounded followed by the compartment giving a little tug, indicating that the train that started his journey to Hogwarts, to his home. The scene of perron 9 ¾ began gliding away, Mrs Weasley moving parallel to the train, continuing her never ending goodbye's to them with shouts of: "Stay safe," "Do your best!" and "Clean underwear everyday Ron!" making harry laugh at Ron's flustered face.

"Seriously, what is she thinking shouting stuff like that, I'm not five anymore". He muttered with a sour face.

"Come on Ron, she's simply a bit more stressed and concerned now with the disappearances, not to mention the upcoming wedding and her…disagreements with Fleur." Hermione said, carefully picking words to describe the relationship between the Weasley matriarch and French witch.

The relationship between them was for Harry a mixture of humor and awkwardness, Mrs Weasley obviously didn't like Fleur. Fleur however, seemed to either be oblivious or uncaring; continuously telling how wonderful Bill was in everyway. That of course had Ron gagging multiple times at their display, whenever he was not gawking at her of course.

His summer at the burrow had indeed been eventful: order and silence held no meaning there, despite Fred and George apparent absence; now heavily spending their time on their flourishing shop, there had been little peace. Mrs Weasley often threw glances at the Weasley clock, all of the pointers indicating 'mortal danger' no matter where they were, or what they were doing.

Mr Weasley often came home from the ministry carrying news about people going missing, dementor attacks, and how Karkaroff; old headmaster of Durmstrang and retired Death Eater, had been found dead at a shack. Voldemort probably didn't take his leave kindly.

Diagon Alley had also changed. Streets no longer bustled with salesman and inviting shop signs or Witches, Wizards, and children filling the streets having excited conversations. No, they had made way for swindlers, boarded shops, and ministry propaganda posters. People moved in groups, huddled together, quietly moving to shops in quick and efficient manner hoping to get it done fast.

Dumbledore had send Hagrid along as guard for him and the Weasleys while they did their shopping for school supplies. He guessed it had rather been for pretense and an early reunion with Hagrid. Death Eaters didn't attack in broad daylight, Yet. Rather creating a fear of the unknown than known, leaving it to your own imagination.

When they came across narcissi and Draco Malfoy at Madam Malkin's, they noticed that draco acted a bit suspicious by jumping every time Mrs. Malkin tried adjusting the sleeves on his forearm. Growing frustrated, he had thrown off the robes and left with his mother, the shop windows vibrating at the force of the door he slammed shut.

They had seen him again while they were at the Weasley shop walking hurriedly along all alone without his mother.

They had followed him under the Cloak, going through Knockturn Alley and ending up at Borgin and Burkes. Malfoy wanted Borgin to give him answers on how to fix something.

Borgin told him he wasn't sure if he couldn't see it himself, which made Malfoy do _something_ that made Borgin look frightened. Now he was threatening rather than asking him.

Malfoy had been touchy about his arm, his father's been imprisoned, and he threatened Borgin with something. Had Malfoy replaced his father as a Death Eater? To spy in Hogwarts? Why did he want to fix this object he couldn't show Borgin?

He told of his suspicion to Ron, Hermione, and afterwards Mr Weasley. They didn't share the thought saying that Voldemort would not employee sixteen year olds. How could they be sure? Despicable? Yes. Impossible? No.

He was pulled out of his musings as the compartment door opened and a voice asked,

"Hey guys mind if we sit here?"

In the doorway stood Neville with and Luna with Neville still looking a bit awkward but his voice sounded a lot more confident compared to last year. He also seemed to have lost a bit of weight, looking filled out instead of slightly overweight.

Luna hadn't changed much, a dreamy expression on her face and a copy of the quibbler already in one hand. Her collection of beads and trinkets although, seemed to have grown.

"Yeah sure, Ron and I have to leave though because we have a meeting in the prefect carriage followed by patrols." Hermione responded motioning for Ron to come along as Luna and Neville took the seats across from Harry.

Ron sighed, as he stood, "I'm not so sure if I still want to be a prefect anymore Hermione, all we do is babysit midgets and have boring meetings."

"Don't call them midgets Ron! They're first and second years." She chided, wanting him to set an example.

"Too bad, I'm quite good at Gnome throwing." Ron responded grinning a little at the thought and following after her into the corridor.

The door slid closed and a moment of silence followed, Luna's necklace rankled, breaking the silence. "Are we going to have D.A. lessons again?" she asked staring at a spot over my shoulder.

Neville too, looked expectantly at him for the answer. Trevor however seemed to sense his lapse of focus on him and jumped for freedom, making a squishy sound as it landed on the floor and went under the bench.

"Trevor!" Neville called, jumping much like his toad to find him. Harry didn't need to think long on the answer.

"No, sorry this year we will probably have some decent lessons again with Umbridge gone. Making the D.A. a bit unnecessary."

"That's too bad; it felt a lot like I had friends". Replied Luna as Neville resurfaced with Trevor, looking a bit disappointed at his answer, and embarrassed at Luna's.

Feeling a mixture of embarrassment and understanding he said "Don't say that Luna, you do have friends: Neville, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, me, are a few examples; saying not so disappoints me." It may have been a bit harsh he realized after saying it, but Luna only seemed to smile, content. "Your right Harry, the Wrackspurts almost got me."

Harry and Neville stared.

"A Wrackspurt… They're invisible. They float in through your ears and make your brain go fuzzy," she said. "I thought I felt one zooming around in here." She flapped her hands at the air, as though beating off large invisible moths.

He smiled a bit, glad that she seemed to have understood, in her own way. Further conversation was halted when there was a disturbance outside their compartment door; a group of fourth year girls were whispering and giggling together on the other side of the glass.

"You ask him!" Said one. "No, you!" Rebutted another.

"I'll do it!" And one of them, a bold looking girl with large dark eyes, prominent chin, and long black hair pushed her way through the door.

"Hi, Harry, I'm Romilda, Romilda Vane," she said loudly and confidently. "Why don't you join us in our compartment? You don't have to sit with them," she added in a whisper, indicating Neville, who had the toad in his hands and Luna, who was reading upside down.

"They're friends of mine," said Harry coldly.

"Oh," said the girl, looking surprised. "Oh. Okay." And she withdrew, sliding the door closed behind her.

"A-are you sure you don't want to go Harry? I mean its fine with me. I wouldn't want to keep you here because you're polite so you can really just-"

"Do you want the same speech Neville?" Harry cut across Neville's rambling, referring to his statement to Luna moments before.

"Err-no, sorry I understand." Neville mumbled, embarrassed. "How was Summer Harry?" he asked picking himself up with surprising speed.

The three of them discussed their holiday, Harry keeping his story simple until sometime later the door slid open again, "Wish the lunch trolley would hurry up, I'm starving," said Ron longingly, slumping into the seat beside Harry and rubbing his stomach. "Hi, Neville. Hi, Luna. Guess what?" he added, turning to Harry. "Malfoy s not doing prefect duty, he's just sitting in his compartment with the other Slytherins, we saw him when we passed."

Harry sat up straight, interested. It was not like Malfoy to pass up the chance to demonstrate his power as prefect, which he had happily abused previous year. Malfoy must have a good reason for resigning his prefect post, just as he had declined his offer to become Quidditch captain. As if he needed more time.

"Maybe he preferred the Inquisitorial Squad," said Hermione. "Maybe being a prefect seems a bit tame after that." Harry kept silent, thinking.

The compartment door slid open again and a breathless third year girl stepped inside. "I'm supposed to deliver these to Neville Longbottom and Harry P-Potter," she faltered, as her eyes met Harry's and she turned scarlet. She was holding out two scrolls of parchment tied with violet ribbon. Perplexed, Harry and Neville took the scroll addressed to each of them and the girl stumbled back out of the compartment.

"What is it?" Ron demanded, as Harry unrolled his. "An invitation," said Harry.

**Harry,**

**I would be delighted if you would join me for a bite of lunch in compartment C.**

**Sincerely, Horace**

"But what does he want me for?" asked Neville nervously, as though he was expecting detention. "I'm afraid he will ask questions about your parents." said Harry, feeling sorry for him. "Oh." Was all he said, his face expressionless and his body stiff.

Harry wasn't sure whether he liked Slughorn or not. The man reminded him of a walrus with his round belly and groomed mustache. He supposed he had been pleasant in his way, but he also seemed vain and had looked much too surprised when Harry said that Muggle-borns would make a good Witches or Wizards.

Slughorn's foremost reason for these invitations was to get connections and profit from them. He thought thinking about how the home of the man was decorated by gifts of wealth and objects of rarity.

He concluded that Horace Slughorn was good enough of a person, but a collector, for both humans and objects.

Upon reaching compartment C, they saw that they were not the only ones who got slughorn's invitation. "Harry, m'boy!" said Slughorn jumping up, His shiny bald head and great silvery mustache gleamed as brightly in the sunlight as the golden buttons on his waistcoat. His belly instantly taking up the remaining space in front of a boy who looked nonplussed by the personal space invasion.

"Wonderful to see you again! And you must be Mr. Longbottom!" Neville nodded, looking as though he had after effects of the petrificus totalus, but managed to respond with a leveled "Yes sir." At a gesture from Slughorn, they sat down opposite each other in the only two empty seats.

Harry briefly looked at their fellow guests. Seeing the boy who nearly tasted Slughorn's belly, a Slytherin from their year, a tall dark skinned boy; there were also two seventh year boys Harry did not know and, squashed in the corner beside Slughorn and looking as though she was not entirely sure how she had got there, Ginny.

"Are you two familiar with everyone here?" Slughorn asked Harry and Neville. "Blaise Zabini is also in your year." He said indicating toward the boy that was Zabini who did not make any sign of recognition or greeting, nor did Harry or Neville: Why bother if he didn't?

"This is Cormac McLaggen, someone who you most certainly know. No?"

McLaggen, a large, wiry haired youth, only raised a hand in a greeting silent, and they nodded back at him in response.

"… And this is Marcus Belby, Maybe this time? No?" Slughorn said slowly, trying one last time. Belby, who was quite thin, gave a strained smile. "… Well, worry not for this last young lady tells me she knows you both!" Slughorn finished jovially, apparently glad that he had at least found someone familiar to them. Ginny raised her shoulders a bit and gave them a small smile.

Slughorn quickly seemed to round on each of them, already knowing his questions to ask about connections of their families. Belby regularly went on nogtail hunts in Norfolk with Bertie Higgs, Rufus Scrimgeour and Tiberius Ogden, much to Slughorn's delight. Zabini, who was interrogated after McLaggen, turned out to have a famously beautiful witch for a mother. Who had mountains of gold after each husband she had _mysteriously_ died. Neville was next, and had indeed been questioned about his parents, wellknown Aurors. He had responded to each question but choose not to elaborate too much. Slughorn seemed to be unsure whether or not he took after his parents.

Lastly he turned to Harry, saving the most interesting for last, atleast that was how he got introduced; bringing up the many discussions and articles of 'the chosen one'. Thankfully though, Neville and Ginny rebutted much of these claims, allowing the topic of discussion to soon be about slughorn's reminiscence, but Harry had the distinct impression that Slughorn had not finished with him, and that he had not been convinced by Neville and Ginny.

The afternoon wore on with more anecdotes about illustrious wizards Slughorn had taught, all of who had been delighted to join what he called the "Slug Club" at Hogwarts. Harry could not wait to leave, but couldn't see how to do so politely.

They could finally leave when the train was dyed into red by the sunset, and Slughorn had sent them off, glad with the new information he had received from all of them.

Harry was about to return to Ron and Hermione but stopped himself when Zabini walked past him, and started heading to what he presumed to be Malfoy's compartment.

An idea occurred to him, a reckless one but with the potential to be very rewarding. Zabini would soon enter Malfoy's compartment again. If Harry could get inside underneath his Invisibility Cloak unnoticed, he could possibly hear a lot of interesting things.

He didn't hesitate for long and darted after Zabini and reached into his robe, searching for his invisibility cloak and trying to get it out. After a few moments of being unable to get the cloak out he looked down into his robe for a second, frustrated that the cloak was stubbornly stuck inside his robe.

He might have heard the compartment door slide but he wasn't paying attention to his ears nor the path in front of him, as his eyes were elsewhere.

His conquest for information on Malfoy was abruptly halted as he collided with a body seemingly appearing out of nowhere, which he noted; made a surprised squeak. He lost his balance, still managing to steer himself from not falling on top of the person before colliding against the wall between two compartments with his head.

Of course, just my luck he thought as he held his painful forehead. Feeling it throb.

"Watch where you're walking, dugbog shite!" came the color and spiteful reply behind him. He might have laughed, had it not been for the missed opportunity to listen in on Draco and his discomfort, courtesy from the wall.

"Your right I wasn't looking, sorry." He replied giving in to any blame. Better apologize and move on, before rumors go around of 'the-boy-who-assaulted' and the whole school turns on him again.

Turning around he saw it had been indeed a female voice, despite the language. Not to mention he noticed it a bit in the collision.

She was just getting up, having apparently fallen down to her hands and knees; she probably hadn't hurt herself, unlike him.

She had blonde hair, done in a ponytail, drawing attention more to her blue eyes and face, which was so far he could see, quite pretty despite the glare etched on her face. Her figure was light and slim, maybe a bit thin.

She righted herself, on her chest a green badge gleaming, a snake engraved on it; Slytherin. "What made you run Potter? Trying to catch up on your ego?" she bited, her posture proud with her chin slightly tilted upwards. Looking every bit the pureblood.

He glanced down the corridor just in time to see the door slide closed.

Great he thought then turning his attention back to the girl.

"Look who's talking. Feeling good about ourselves?" He said his eyes shifting back to her. The Slytherin however, seemed unaffected. In fact the rebuttal was already there.

"I for one am simply proud of myself and confident in my skills. In contrast to you and your wandwork I must say you're slightly above average at best"

Suppressing his annoyance he sighed, seeing no use in trying to think of a good insult with his headache, he walked past her back to his compartment. Hearing her grumble as she went back into hers.

Harry skulked past the other compartments, glad that the door only allowed people a quick glimpse of him walking by. Letting him mostly avoid the stares and whispers.

The whole chosen one business had gone around the whole wizarding world of Britain at the very least. Voldemort showing himself at the ministry made sure of that. At least for once the rumors were true. However he wasn't going to tell them that.

He felt guilty as he hadn't told Ron and Hermione about the prophecy; yes they deserved to know, but were better off not knowing a small if not minuscule difference in their safe being. They knew that Voldemort would be coming for him anyway. Whether it was for a prophecy or grudge didn't matter.

The prophecy to everyone's knowledge was lost in the ministry where it fell, unheard, which in a sense was true, since Dumbledore only heard the original all those years ago, and recently passed it on to him.

Opening his compartment door he saw that the lunch trolley had passed a long time ago as the space around Ron's seat was littered with empty wrappers. "Hey Harry, what happened to your forehead? Did someone headbutt you?" Ron asked as harry took the seat between him and Neville.

"No the wall did." he grumbled, "Bumped into a Slytherin and lost my balance." Ron made a face, probably imagining how putrid making physical contact with a Slytherin would make him feel.

"Nothing else happened I hope? In any case let me take care of that for you." Hermione said taking out her wand muttering "Sana Livore." Instantly easing his bruise and headache as he could feel the healing spell do its job.

Feeling his forehead he said "Thanks Hermione, and no, nothing happened apart from the insults." Reminding him of the girl, the squeak had been quite funny, probably embarrassed her. Heh.

"Where were you going harry?" asked Neville having seen him leave hurriedly. "Oh. I had to use the restroom; Slughorn's drinks went down quite fast." He said quickly thinking of an excuse. Hermione didn't look very convinced though, but apparently decided that it couldn't have been that important and dropped it, for now.

"So what did Professor Slughorn want?" Hermione asked. "To know what really happened at the Ministry." said Harry. "Him and everyone else here," sniffed Hermione. "People were interrogating us about it on the train, weren't they, Ron?"

"Yeah," said Ron. "All wanting to know if you really are 'the Chosen One'."

Harry grimaced "Yeah, I bet they did." he said grabbing a chocolate frog and seeing the card of Albus Dumbledore smiling back at him, making him somehow feel caught in the act of lying.

* * *

Harry was happy to lie in his bed again in the dorms several hours later, tired from the long journey and already surprised by the changes for this year.

In the Great Hall Dumbledore had welcomed them, and given them all a warning of the dangerous times that have begun with the resurrection of Voldemort. The following sorting ceremony and other announcements hadn't been all that special for once.. luckily. Except for the fact that Slughorn, the new professor who he had presumed to be the new Defense Teacher, was actually the new Potions Master while Snape would take over Defense.

He hadn't seen it coming nor was he happy about it, luckily he hadn't been the only one to think that way as nearly the whole Hall had begun chatting and whispering to each other in response until Dumbledore stilled them.

He sighed contently as the bed didn't creak or moan against any movement contrary to the Dursleys. Sleep quickly claiming him as he closed his eyes, already hearing Ron snore.

* * *

He didn't know where he was, how he came here, or when he came here. Everything was white, he couldn't even tell up from down. Already becoming disoriented he turned, hoping to find something in the white abyss.

Which he did. Behind him stood a black cage, the sudden appearance of it in his vision surprising him. It was a few feet higher than him and was perfectly square, a thick lock hanging on the door. It was shaped in the form of a serpent adorned with many details engraved in it.

Inside the cage was a humanoid shape, is had the size of a child, maybe 10-11 years old, standing upright. No human features could be described; it had none, the face was a smooth mask revealing no sockets for any eyes, nose or mouth. His body however was completely pitch black, painfully obvious in the White Sea around them. He seemed to be smoldering, from his body trails of smoke flowed into the air, polluting it.

They stared at each other for a while, at least he thought it was; the head of the strange entity was angled towards him. It started moving after a moment of deathlike silence, turning his head to the right and pointed. Harry followed his gesture and looked. In his vision now stood a small display cabinet.

Looking back at the entity he saw that he still in the same position, pointing towards the cabinet. Moving from his spot harry walked towards the cabinet and peered inside.

Only a single item lay within; a key, made with the same quality as the lock. Did he want Harry to get him out?

He looked back at the cage again. It didn't seem dangerous; in fact it felt like he wasn't an intruder at all. More like he finally saw something that had always been there.

It waited patiently for him. But… somehow he just _knew _that releasing him would be the wrong choice. That he would be releasing Pandora's box.

He leaned away from the cabinet going back to the cage, holding his gaze when he heard it; "Re—ase... ee." The voice was rasping and broken, as if a Dementor was trying to form words. He stopped walking, transfixed on the being. He opened his mouth hopefully being able to get an understandable answer "What are you?" For him the most important question. Only silence ensued. He started to repeat his question before the entire scene vanished before his eyes as the ceiling of the dorms filled his vision with light glaring into his eyes.

"Harry wake up mate, don't make me start slapping you, think you can sleep longer than me eh?" Ron had thrown open the curtains around his bed, allowing rays of bright sunlight to hammer down on him.

He fumbled for his glasses and put them on; his eyes still squinted from the light and sleep. The hell was with that dream? Luckily no nightmare but what was that all about? Limbo. Creepy kid. Snakes.

Harry shrugged it off as he started to change into his robes; sometimes you just have weird dreams. In any case it's better than waking up in cold sweat from the nightmares of the graveyard and ministry.


	2. History and Lessons

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter Universe and all the characters belong to J.K. Rowling.

* * *

**Many thanks to TabiPrewett for Beta'ing this chapter!**

* * *

Daphne Greengrass sat in front of her mirror, aggressively brusher her hair, the sound of fast and firm strokes repeating themselves in her room. It didn't matter that the sun had been weak this Holiday, her skin was hard to tan anyway. She had better things to do than sit outside all day in the garden. It was fine that Diagon Alley had become a bit depressive and that Astoria; her sister, had been more aggravating than ever this year. Pestering her about guys in her year and showing off her mediocre scores to her parents who instantly gifted her for her 'hard work'. While Daphne dutifully did her best achieving O's, E's for the subjects and even an A for History of Magic. She had to use stinging hexes on herself to stay awake, which wasn't the perfect solution.

No her Holiday was ruined when Death Eaters visited. Each step they took and breath they exhaled was pestiferous for them and the manor they lived in. They wore no attire, mask or expression that suggested so, but they were acting as recruiters, dropping subtle hints of joining and/or supporting The Dark Lord in their long-winded conversations.

She had known for a long time that her grandparents had joined Grindelwald in his short rein along with other ancestors who shared the same thoughts of supremacy over others in the course of history but her parents had quickly seen in the First Wizarding War that they had made the right choice by not joining the Dark side, as word of the atrocities committed reached them.

The Dark Lord allowed them to remain neutral, her parents were no fighters, and their financial wealth had been nothing special at the time. Leaving them with no desire to join Dumbledore either, as it would only break their neutrality.

Now The Dark Lord would most likely take insult to a second declination. More so now that their wealth had exponentially increased after years of business in potion ingredients, most rare and hard to obtain. Their small fortune would most likely coming to serve as the Malfoy's. Resources for the war while it brought destruction upon them. Not to mention that Astoria and her would likely be married of to his followers children also played a role now in their decision, she thought with pride of her parents in her chest.

Her Father had been cryptic in the meeting with them, giving vague and deflecting answers, postponing their inevitable decision as long as they could. The recruiters left, reluctantly, leaving promises of future visits in the air.

Tracey Davis, her friend, had gotten in the same situation. They had visited her house, talking only to her Father with the same propaganda acting as though her mother was thin air for them. Acting without doubt as they did because her mother was Muggleborn, making Tracey a Halfblood. They spouted their nonsense of 'Making the blood pure again'. Suffice to say that her Father had much trouble containing his murderous intent and like Daphne's parents, opted to stretch out their answer as long as possible.

It stressed her out a bit, having the shadow of war looming over them. No, it was already in the making. The silent picking off could be seen in the papers every once in a while. Old grudges and unfinished business were being taken care of first. She stopped brushing her hair after it had been reduced to a moderate speed by her distracting thoughts. Better finish up, Tracey will be here soon.

* * *

She looked up from her Potions book to the window of the compartment she and Tracey shared, outside the Sun was hanging low, crimson colors painting the horizon in multiple layers. The remainder of the Holiday had been spent with Tracey, busying their time in Daphne's Manor and going to Diagon Alley with their Mothers.

"Sooo Daphne, any plans for the future?" Tracey dragged out playfully, chocolate eyes looking at her expectantly. Making her look back to see her chestnut brown hair and tanned skin light up in an orange shade from the sun.

"Are you trying to make pointless conversation? You know I want to continue my Fathers business." She said arching her eyebrow.

Tracey grinned back, "Oh, you know I like to talk. But you also spoke about writing articles some time ago right? Thinking about becoming some kind of Journalist?"

Daphne looked thoughtful having indeed spent some time thinking about her second interest. "It does interest me, always liked to get to the bottom of something."

"Yeah most noticeable with your potion making. You know every use and property of the ingredients we use!" Tracey cried out.

"It helps a lot with the brewing, add some instinct and feeling for it and your guaranteed to have success, maybe even better." Daphne spoke, taking in some pride about her brewing skills. It was what she did best.

"Yes I can see why the business would be your first choice. Maybe it's something for the time before then? Walk around and actually publish something containing a pint of truth in it?" she said revering to Rita Skeeter, whom for them, had lost all credibility when Deranged Dark Lord Potter articles came out under her name.

She nodded. "Merlin knows when that time comes. Like Dark Lord Potter? Really now?" The idea of the Gryffindor Golden Boy doing anything remotely Dark was laughable to her. Chances were bigger that Malfoy would start loving Muggleborns while Crabbe and Goyle actually managed to answer a question correctly.

Tracey's face turned dark and serious. "You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain." However she only managed to hold it for a few moments before losing control of her features again.

Daphne momentarily contemplated the words. Finding it intriguing how they could make you think and reconsider certain things. "Oh how poetic, another muggle reference of yours?"

"Yes from another movie, we should watch it together some time when you visit us again!" Tracey said enthusiastically.

Daphne, despite her first meeting with them having already been some years ago, still found the long picture stories, or rather _movies_ on a screen a bit weird, entertaining but weird. "Sure, I'll be back in a moment Tracey. Restroom." She said standing up and walking out of the compartment door.

Not a second after she had closed the door was she sent tumbling sideways by what was most presumably a male judging by the physique in the split second. The suddenness of it all scaring the wits out of her as she let out what was most likely the most embarrassing sound she had ever made thus far.

Luckily the body didn't drag her down all the way, allowing her to save herself by falling on her hands and knees. Her short fuse quickly burned up and she cursed despite being unharmed. "Watch where you walk, dugbog shite!"

Her assailant had already turned around holding his forehead, granting her a better look. He had messy hair pointing and lying in every direction. On his nose rested a thin frame with round glasses, green eyes squinting behind them in discomfort, beneath his bags a lightning bolt shaped scar. Great it's Harry freaking Potter. Seeing the Boy-Who-Lived only brought her mind back to her own family's predicament in the unveiling war, doing nothing to lessen her irritation.

"Your right I wasn't looking, sorry." He had replied, sounding more annoyed than sorry.

She rose back to a standing position as dignified as she could before continuing. "What made you run Potter? Trying to catch up on your ego?" she taunted as she saw his eyes shift somewhere else before coming back to rest on hers.

"Look who's talking. Feeling good about ourselves?" He said his voice more of a grumble than anything. Probably from the bruise on his forehead, she thought a little satisfied that Merlin above has met out punishment for her.

"I, for one, am simply proud of myself and confident in my skills, in contrast to you and your wandwork. I must say you're slightly above average at best." she jibed again. Knowing her pompous manner would work on his nerves. Sure enough she saw his eye twitch before he sighed and walked away from her, as if it's her fault! She went back to her compartment door muttering obscenities.

"Geez Daph, what happened there? You were suddenly gone!" Tracey said, trying in a very bad attempt to act oblivious, probably more amused than concerned from seeing her tumble out of sight.

"Shut up. You know what happened; Potter hurled into me." She said trying to forget it all.

Such thoughts were futile ofcourse, as Tracey would never let this go down quietly. "So it was Potter? I guess he really…swept you off your feet." She said wiggling her eyebrows before laughing heartily about her own joke as Daphne could only sigh knowing that more would come.

"Oh, oh, or maybe next time he will say: 'It's not my fault I fell in love. You are the one that tripped me.'" she continued trying to imitate a manly voice.

Daphne could only close her eyes. Morgana help anyone who finds this funny…still she could not help herself, and started laughing quietly.

* * *

The dream was easily pushed aside when he sat with Hermione and Ron for breakfast. Shortly after they received their schedules from McGonagall, after she expressed her slight chagrin of Harry not joining as Quidditch captain of course. McGonagall is more competitive for winning the cup than she's letting on. Ron pretty much drew a blank, stunned by his resignation from Quidditch. Hermione looked a bit alarmed asking why he had stopped playing for the house

"I still enjoy Quidditch guys, it's just that I simply decided to put more time into my studies." He had said making Hermione look less alarmed and positively happy. Ron had looked between them, his eyes glazed over, reminding him a lot of Trelawney, was he going to make a prophecy? "For… studies?" It came out, disbelieving, continuing all the way to their first Defense against the Dark Arts lesson with Snape.

The lesson went as he had expected meaning Snape would stalk him like an overgrown bat, snide remarks made throughout the lesson with not so subtle glares whenever he, much to Snape's disappointment; correctly performed his shield charms. DADA was contrary to potions, the area where he performed best. It seemed that Snape this year too would not disappoint him with trying to make him lose his temper and serve detentions. He had done his best not to lash out at Snape with his own words, effectively keeping him out of detention, for now.

He had to admit that regardless of the obnoxious bat behavior, the lesson had been informative. Snape knew his stuff well enough. But with him being a Death Eater it would be hard not to.

A fellow Gryffindor had found him from his year shortly after they had gotten out of the classroom. Delivering him a small parchment from Dumbledore saying his first lesson would held on Saturday evening 8 p.m. making them speculate on what the Headmaster would be teaching him: Jinxes? Hexes? Advanced Spellwork? He certainly hoped for Spells that would help him fight Voldemort in any case.

Standing before the door of the Potions classroom felt a bit weird, usually the dread for Snape settled in here but he realized that there would be no Snape here now. Ron and Hermione looked like they shared the same thought glad that Snape won't be here, and curious as to how it will go with Slughorn.

At the other side of the hallway stood the Slytherin's, already glaring and talking about the Gryffindor's is hushed whispers. Between them he saw the girl again; the one he had knocked down a few days earlier. Seemed like she also remembered as she gave him a cool look before turning back to talk with a fellow Slytherin, better than glaring I guess? Had she been in his year all this time? Well he wasn't one to remember names, let alone from Slytherin.

Slughorn's lesson had gone by well enough. Meaning he had disappointed Slughorn with his dreadful Draught of Living Death, showing him he hadn't inherited his mother's talent for potion brewing, and hoping that Slughorn might leave him alone a bit more now. The jovial Professor however passed it off with "Don't fret about it m'boy! Plenty of other talents left!" his belly shaking as he laughed, buttons threatening to explode against the strain.

Ron was struggling to even keep his cauldron from violently exploding, as the contents were dark brown and bubbled threateningly, prompting Slughorn to vanish the contents before any disaster occurred. Hermione had impressed him with her intelligence by answering all his questions, no doubt raising his interest in her. If only she knew what she was bringing onto herself. Unfortunately even she seemed incapable of making the potion turn into a clear colour as the book described. Having a pale lilac instead, much to her frustration.

Malfoy, who normally performed reasonably in potions, now nearly looked to be on the same level as Ron. His mind clearly somewhere else as he was fumbling around for the ingredients he had scattered everywhere on his table.

The one who gained the most praise had been the Slytherin girl from before. The contents being a clear liquid vial, as the instructions said. Prompting Slughorn to take a sample and parade it around the class, Speaking wonders on the quality. Happy that he had gotten himself a cauldron of the hard to make potion and potential prodigy for his "Slug Club." Said prodigy took the praise respectfully. Harry however was sure of some haughtiness coming off her body language.

She must've been this good all along right? Hermione in all likelihood does not enjoy talking about students being better than her in any classes. Most likely never wanting to bring it up either. Snape would probably simply nod and stalk off, looking for failed cauldrons to pester their brewers with it, fulfilling his heart's desire to agonize people.

* * *

Harry stood in front of the gargoyle leading to the Headmasters office. The rest of the week had passed with them doing Charms and Herbology. Spending most of their time making the long essays assigned with them. Harry growing more eager every day and hour for his first meeting with Dumbledore, wondering what spells and information he would be taught.

"Acid Pops," said Harry, and the gargoyle leapt aside; the wall behind it slid apart, and a moving spiral stone staircase was revealed, onto which Harry stepped, so that he was carried in smooth circles up to the door with the brass knocker that led to Dumbledore's Office.

Harry knocked, and entered when he heard Dumbledore's voice invite him.

"Come in," said Dumbledore's voice.

"Good evening, sir," Said Harry, closing the door behind him.

"Ah, good evening, Harry. Have a seat," said Dumbledore, smiling as he gestured to the seat across from him. "I hope you've had an enjoyable start this time?

"I did, sir." Said Harry looking around curiously for any clues as to what his lesson with the Headmaster would entail. But felt slightly puzzled as everything was just as it had always been. Portraits lined the walls with closets and bookcases, while intricate silver instruments stood on his desk and other tables while Fawkes stood on his perch, looking at Harry with bright interest.

The only exception was a case made of glass, which lay in front of him on Dumbledore's desk. Inside of it rested a golden ring set with a large black stone.

Emotions welled up from inside him as he took a moment to look at the ring, the feelings of comfort, longing, and familiarity. It was comforting and he wondered if that was its purpose.

"So, Harry," said Dumbledore, in a serious tone. Brining Harry back to attention. "You have likely been wondering what I have planned for you during these.. lessons?"

"I have." He responded simply, wondering why Dumbledore hadn't cleared a space for dueling practice. Were they going to be set aside later?

"We will delve into the past, Harry, please still your questions for when we are done." He said calmly, rising from his high backed chair and getting to his feet.

For a moment Harry thought that they were going to practice spells after all only to be disappointed as he walked around the desk, and retrieved something from his cabinet. When Dumbledore straightened up, he was holding a familiar shallow stone basin etched with odd markings around its rim. He placed the Pensieve on the desk in front of Harry.

"Where are we going, sir? And from who is that?" He asked, curious to the memory they were going to view memories as the basin was placed.

"We are going to take a look at Bob Ogden's memory." said Dumbledore, pulling from his pocket a crystal bottle containing a swirling silvery white substance.

"Who is or was Bob Ogden?"

"All will be explained Harry, in the memory." He said pouring the silvery contents of the bottle into the Pensieve.

* * *

Harry and Dumbledore emerged from the memory, back into the Office full of little gadgets making swirling and puffin sounds. The sky outside was inky black and the lamps in Dumbledore's office seemed to glow more brightly than before.

Harry had immediately fired off his questions about the memory, trying to make out what the lesson in them contained. Learning from Dumbledore that it had been about the Gaunt family; descendants from Salazar Slytherin. Rather, Voldemort's family; Marvolo who was his grandfather, Morfin his uncle, Merope his mother and Tom being his father. Who had all, with the exception of Tom Riddle died. Leaving Voldemort to grow up in an orphanage, as his muggle father had abandoned him.

"Sir, the ring, it's the same as the one Marvolo Gaunt wore." He said his attention being pulled back to the ring.

"It is Harry."

"Why do you have it sir?" he asked after Dumbledore didn't elaborate.

"I found it after visiting the Gaunt's house. I went there for an expedition so to say, hoping to find out more about Voldemort. I decided to take the ring with me for containment and destruction after noticing some particularly Dark Curses on it, hence the glass cage here. I took liberty to add intricate protective Charms on it to contain its alluring powers. Wouldn't want any unlucky muggles or wizards to stumble across it." He paused chuckling. "It's proving to be very resilient, however I will soon find means to destroy it. Ridding ourselves of its presence."

Harry nodded. These emotions must be from some of the powers leaking past the protective Charms.

"Sir, I've been wondering, how was Voldemort able to resurrect himself? He had been in some kind of deformed body before his resurrection."

Dumbledore interlaced his fingers, bending forward. "I believe it to be the Regeneration potion, a very old and Dark potion that restores a wizard whose body has become maimed and disfigured; much like Voldemort's had been as you describe, to their true and whole bodily form."

"Why did Voldemort look like he did then? He doesn't seem very human, almost like it failed." He asked confused by the results of the potion.

"I believe the reason to be his very own soul Harry. Voldemort committed many repugnant acts, scarring his own soul with it. The potion acts accordingly and reflects this."

"And before his resurrection? The maimed body, how had he acquired that?"

Dumbledore looked a bit less reluctant now. "I can only grasp at straws, but my best guess is that he merely used it as a container to sustain himself using another potion of his own after his plan of gaining the Sorcerer's Stone failed."

Harry nodded, absorbing the information and pushed on. "And even before that? He had been a spirit right? Quirrel had been his host. How is he different from the Hogwarts ghosts? Able to move from one host to the other?"

Dumbledore's eyes peered intently into his over his half-moon spectacles. "I have a theory as to why Harry, but it is still only that; a theory. I intend to share it with you after confirming it by using these memories.

"I see." Harry said, his mind burning for questions but realized that Dumbledore wasn't going to give more information on his theory.

"I think that will do for tonight, Harry," said Dumbledore after a moment or two.

"Sir, one last thing." he said hesitantly again with an uncomfortable feeling. "Will you be teaching me spells later on? Or some sort of training?"

Dumbledore was silent for a moment. "I'm afraid that time is short and these memories are very important to know. More will surely come."

Harry was a bit disappointed but continued. "Could the other Professors help? McGonagall or Flitwick, maybe permission from you to get into the restricted section? This way I won't bother the other Professors if they are not available."

"No Harry, I do not wish to overburden you with advanced spells on top of your regular ones being taught every day." He explained before his face sank the smallest of bits.

"You are still young Harry. Make the best out of it." The last sentence was spoken softly. Apologetic.

* * *

**Another chapter out, this time seeing some of the previous events from daphne's POV + info on her. **


	3. Confundo and Herbology

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter Universe and all the characters belong to J.K. Rowling.

* * *

**Many thanks to TabiPrewett for Beta'ing this chapter!**

* * *

Harry had told Ron and Hermione that his lessons with the Headmaster would not be containing any spellwork, their disappointment mirroring his own. For a moment he thought about telling them what he had learned regarding Voldemort's past and his questioning of the ritual, but decided against it in the end. Harry felt that the matter on Dumbledore's theory would likely need to be kept a secret between them. At least that was what he liked to say, not wanting to think about how his own selfish feelings for safekeeping them might be the true reason.

Ron and Hermione had shared a look before Ron shrugged and went back to annihilating his breakfast while Hermione only looked down at her food, brows slightly furrowed together.

It had been nearly a week since Dumbledore's lesson. Expectations of casting nonverbally were now in every class, which focused on spellwork. He struggled but didn't feel so bad after seeing everyone purple in the face from the strain during classes. Herbology was nothing passive either, teaming up was a requirement, the plants being so vicious and dangerous you needed at least one person to hold it down while the other extracted whatever the assignment required from the green demon spawns, Snargaluff's being the current.

Harry wanted to go either into the library or to an empty classroom to train alone during the week, but found it hard to find the time for it. The Professors were giving them an extra workload from the start to let them know that sixth year was difficult and serious.

On top of that there was the matter of Hagrid being obviously distraught about their choice of dropping Care of Magical Creatures, being his favorite students and suddenly dropping out had hurt him more than they would have thought.

Their visit to Hagrid had gone well enough, even after Harry had threatened to blast open his door when he continued to stubbornly ignore them. The groundkeeper had warmed up to them again after hearing their willingness (mostly Hermione here) to do whatever they could for the sick spider, Aragog, who had fallen ill during the summer. Luckily-err-unfortunately such things were much too dangerous now with the spider colony becoming restless in the forest.

Ron's quidditch try out had gone well and had earned him the position of keeper, but not without the helping hand of Hermione casting a Confundus Charm at McLaggen to make him lose..

Ron's good mood however was not to last, as Harry saw Slughorn walk towards them just when they were about to go into the castle again, his arms spread wide as if trying to catch him.

"There you are, Harry!" He greeted jovially, playing with one end of his moustache. "How about you join us all and taste a few of the wonderful delicacies we have for supper? I've got McLaggen coming, the Carrow twins, and Zabini, the charming Daphne Greengrass, whom you must have noticed by now. Did you know that her family owns a large chain of apothecaries?"

"Er, no I didn't." Harry responded lamely, wishing that he could hide underneath his Cloak and disappear.

"Well, you learn something new every day! Of course I expect the brilliant Miss Granger to come join us." Slughorn said expectantly, completely ignoring Ron's existence.

"I can't come, Professor," said Harry at once. "I need to catch up on a lot of homework." it was a weak lie, but not one you can ignore.

"Oh no, how dreadful Harry, but no matter next time for sure!" He said before bustling away.

"You'll run out of excuses someday." Ron muttered sourly.

"I wish you could come, I don't want to go on my own!" Said Hermione anxiously, not feeling all that comfortable with going to a party on her own.

After dinner they made their way back to Gryffindor tower to find it very crowded, but they managed to find themselves a free table that was considerably private and away from others. Ron had been in a prickly mood ever since their encounter with Slughorn so he sat there with his arms folded and a moping expression across his face. Along with Ron's mood and Hermione's nose buried in her Arithmancy book there was no conversation going on between them. Harry watched between the two of them and decided to try and break the tense atmosphere by bringing up one of the subjects he had been thinking about since coming to Hogwarts.

"Hey, can you guys think of any way Malfoy could have brought anything inside Hogwarts?"

"But how can he have done that, Harry?" said Hermione, putting down her book with an exaggerated look. "We were all searched when we arrived, weren't we? Filch ran over all of us with Secrecy Sensors when we got into the entrance hall. Any Dark object would have been found."

"Yeah, your right. No doubt that all the owls are being checked too, closing the loop." He said reluctantly but not defeated. "There must have been some other way then." Harry sighed. "Can you tell me that you have not noticed how Malfoy is dropping in his grades, or how he hardly takes the time anymore to pester us or anyone else for that matter?"

"Maybe Malfoy just grew up a bit and started struggling; like many others our year." Hermione said.

Harry wanted to comment on Malfoy only being able to sink lower, but was too slow as it was Ron who spoke up.

"Well sorry that I'm not perfect, Hermione." Ron said glowering, taking insult to her words.

"I wasn't talking to you Ron." Hermione defended herself.

"Nobody does. " Ron grumbled.

"Listen, it's not my fault Slughorn wants us to go to his parties, and is ignoring you, we don't even want to go, you know!" said Hermione, firing up.

"Of course you don't want to." said Ron sarcastically, jumping to his feet. "I think I'll go to bed, it's not like my presence is an important one."

He stormed off toward the door to the boys' dormitories, leaving Harry and Hermione staring after him, leaving them partially annoyed at his behavior and somewhat incredulous that he was going to sleep through the whole evening and night.

"Sorry Harry, but I think I'll start heading to Slughorn's dinner. Make something out of the time you managed to gain." She said putting her book away and heading for the portrait hole. Leaving Harry as he got out his Transfiguration essay, it hadn't been a complete lie; he still had work to do, just that it wasn't as urgent as he made it out to be. Besides this would be a good time to start he thought, thinking about his plans for the coming evenings.

* * *

He moved under his invisibility cloak, avoiding the few students still moving about in the halls. Having taken only a few items with him: the Marauders map, parchment, ink and a quill. It was all he would need for tonight.

There was still some time left before curfew would set in, on the way to the fourth floor he passed several people: a few first years, talking fast, hurrying through the halls, no doubt nervous about the curfew nearly setting in. A gliding Professor Snape, tempting Harry to do some kind of tripping hex, but decided against it as Snape knew about him having the invisibility cloak and didn't want to raise his suspicion in the empty hallway. Lastly, coming out of the library he saw Pansy Parkinson with the Slytherin girl from the train along with another unknown student from Slytherin. Parkinson expressing her unending infatuation of Malfoy as they walked, while the other two made only small sounds of acknowledgement, uninterested.

Entering the library he saw a vulture like woman, Madam Pince, stalking between the bookcases rearranging books and checking them for any damage. He quickly moved past the normal section and her, diving into the Restricted Section.

He took out his wand, creating some light with the Lumos spell, keeping the light to a minimum for fear of any light leaking out beneath the edges of his cloak in the dark section. Moving towards the bookcases he began his search.

Half an hour later he sat seated on a stool with his cloak still around him and the books he needed on his lap. Using one as a small table to write on and another to read in, it was an awkward position to work in but he took stealth as a priority. Especially now that Filch and Mrs. Norris had already passed once. He looked at the books he had found thus far, the covers reading: 'Rebirth and Resurrection', 'Dark Rituals', 'Spells a shade Darker' and 'From Dark wraiths to ghosts'.

He hesitated when moving in to open the books, making sure to put up Silencing Charms before opening any of them the memory of the shrieking book from his first year still fresh in his mind. He opened the book about wraiths and ghosts first, wanting to get an underlying understanding of it all, taking out his quill, ready to make summaries and take notes.

'Chapter one: Lingering remnants and imprints of the wizarding spirit.'

* * *

It was past midnight when Harry moved back to his dorms, a few pages worth of notes under his arm. The largest part containing information about: spirits, ghosts and the soul. Explaining how they are the disembodied spirit of a once-living wizard or witch, afraid of death and merely an imprint of a departed soul left upon the world. Meaning that the wizard had passed on but left a reflecting of him-self behind, reminding him of portraits who are enchanted to reflect the people they once were.

He had also looked into 'Spells a shade Darker' finding some useful and strong Spells, taking notes of their instructions and incantations. It had as the cover suggested; contained Darker Spells. Some of them in particular were downright evil, including the burning of someone's insides and rapid decay of its victims to his dismay. He found that he would be unable to learn those Spells even if he wanted to, as vital instructions and incantation were omitted and blurred out.

Teachers wouldn't want students to go into too much detail regarding such spells, thus censoring parts. Still some of the books contained useful spells, fully described and detailed. It also went into the history and nature of the Dark Arts.

Those were his final thoughts as he quietly stashed his notes beneath his bed and settled in his bed, asleep within minutes.

* * *

They stood in front of the greenhouses, waiting for Professor Sprout to arrive and let them in. A week had passed and Harry returned each night to the same books, having remembered their positions on the shelves and continuing where he left the day before. He had finished the book on ghosts. Now knowing the principles and boundaries on what spiritual beings can and cannot do. He learned that in all cases the beings are incapable of permanently inhabiting or returning to a physical body by whatever means. Meaning that Voldemort's spirit, who managed to inhabit Quirrel's body, and later his maimed container, must have been more than an imprint of the soul or spiritual being.

Sometimes throughout the explanations of the darker beings and methods came forth brief mentioning of _soul anchoring. _It hinted towards more but quickly left the subject, moving on towards other things.

Professor Sprout soon came to them, opening the greenhouse and letting them inside.

"Okay everyone starting today we will be done with the Snargaluff plant-" The class gave out a collected sigh of relief here. "-And start focusing our attention towards a new project. The harvesting of Dragon's Bane! It is as the name suggests a plant usable against Chimera's and Dragons if used properly. Its spores are highly irritating for their noses, causing breathing and thus fire breathing problems, effectively taking away one of their strongest assets. Could anyone tell me one other purpose they can serve for?"

People didn't bother as Hermione's hand was already in the air. Professor Sprout however was looking at Neville, knowing it was his best subject. "No, offense Ms. Granger but I would like others in the class to also try and speak up. Hermione's hand slowly fell down, disappointed. "Mr. Longbottom, give it a try."

Neville looked up nervously. "Er, D-Dragon's Bane is also the most important ingredient in Veritaserum?" he said his answer sounding unsure of his nerves.

"Correct 10 points to Gryffindor! Indeed as Mr. Longbottom said; it is also used for the strongest truth serum." Professor Sprout had in the meanwhile walked towards a workbench and was now sliding on her Dragonhide gloves.

She continued talking before stopping in front of a small potted plant. The core of the plant consisted of what looked like a small coconut with a lilac flower on top. The vines of the plant were only a foot long but were covered with hooked barbs of an inch long.

"Note that these plants need special care when being raised and nurtured. However before you do that be sure to think about your own, and your partner's safety." She said as the small plant began whipping her gloves in frenzy when she touched the flower.

"The flower will exert toxic waste in its center; during its early stages it is important to remove this as it will poison the plant itself if left alone." She said while deftly holding the vines in one hand and removing the toxic with a spoon like tool in the other.

"We will repeat this process until it has become larger. You will be working in pairs, thank me later. The lesson will get harder each time as the plant grows and changes. More instructions will follow when that time arrives. Remember that your teamwork will no doubt influence the quality of the Dragon's Bane so do your best!"

"Now as for the pairings, they have already been determined. Professor Slughorn had come to me earlier and posed some interesting questions while asking me for help. He desperately wants to make sure his students will be able to perform to the best of their abilities."

The classroom broke out in indignation, not wanting to be separated from their friends, while Harry only began to feel suspicious of anything Slughorn decided to mingle with.

"Now, now people. This is for educational purposes; we are not doing this to pester you. Having to work with new and unknown people, no matter their house, origin and standing will be something all of you will be doing later on, whether you be working for the ministry or a toad shop. It is crucial to learn this."

"I'm not working with any slimy snakes Professor!" cried Ron in indignation.

"In fact Mr. Weasley you are, since you will be paired up with Tracey Davis." Sprout quickly shot at him making Ron's jaw drop.

"No way."

Professor Sprout continued undeterred by his outburst. "I'll make the rest of the pairs known now that Mr. Weasley expressed his enthusiasm."

"Millicent Bulstrode with Hermione Granger."

"Pansy Parkinson with Seamus Finnegan."

"Theodore Nott and Gregory Goyle with Lavender Brown."

"Vincent Crabbe with Parvati Patil."

"Draco Malfoy with Neville Longbottom."

"Blaise Zabini with Dean Thomas."

"Harry potter with Daphne Greengrass."

Harry moved slowly away from his friends to one of the plants as they did the same, not looking all that happy. Hermione stood with Bulstrode, giving a leveled greeting to the big and firm girl, who only made a grunting sound back.

Ron looked ready to murder someone as he stared hard at his plant, the intensity of his gaze nearly setting fire to it. Maybe it was for the best that Ron was paired with the Davis girl, she looked to be the friendliest in her expression and attitude.

Harry had been the most curious to see the reaction between Neville and Malfoy because he was already expecting insults to come raining down as soon as Neville would be within his vicinity. He was proven wrong, as it was silent between the two, Malfoy looked annoyed but said little, his eyes small and body swaying on his feet for the barest of inches, Neville, for the most part managing to control his nerves, except for the shuffling of his feet; revealing his emotions.

He walked towards the back of a figure with blond hair done in a ponytail and arms crossed. He knew who the girl was now, in potions she was Slughorn's superstar, the same girl he had hurled into on the train, occasionally saw glimpses of in the halls, and called him Dugbog shit, what is a Dugbog in the first place?

"…Hey." he greeted lamely, standing next to her in front of the plant.

"Hello Potter." She greeted back neutrally. "Let's just try to get along. We will be stuck with each other for the coming weeks. Maybe even months."

"Good to know that you share the same thought then." He said, being sincere in his hope of not planning to kill each other using the plant. "How about I hold the vines down while you remove the toxic?"

"Glad to know that you're willing to do the brute work, allowing me to work on the potentially deadly fluid." She said, slight sarcasm noticeable in her voice.

"Want me to do the poison then?" He offered.

"No I'll do it," said Greengrass making Harry mentally sigh. Wanting to say: 'Then don't complain about it!' but he held his tongue. Let's not start anything and get through these lessons unharmed. He was already glad that she seemed capable of acting civil.

They equipped their Dragonhide gloves, the scales cold and metal like, while the leather in the palm was thick and only slightly flexible.

Harry positioned himself on the right, wanting to grab the vines beforehand, only to find that they had been buried underneath the sand rigidly like normal roots. As if it _knew_…now the only way to the vines is for to me to wait and grab it when it goes into the offense.

He indicated to her that he was ready, his gloved hands in the air above the plant.

She tried to brush a loose strand of hair back behind her ear in preparation, only to fail as her thick glove missed its mark. "Going in."

Vines shot out as her tool neared its mark, Harry instantly starting his job of snatches the vines away from her into a bundle in his other hand, his Seeker skills coming to use, as the vines were young and fast.

"Keep those things away Potter!" she said unable to move closer, as vines swept about.

"Trying to!" He responded, grasping for vines while dodging others.

This continued for a while, Greengrass trying to get closer as Harry snatches them up. After a few minutes of this he held a sizable bundle in his hand, the vines struggling in his grip, the barbs trying in vain to pierce his gloves.

"How's it going Greengrass, making any progress?" he said through his breathing from the workout, having been too occupied with keeping the vines away from them. She had in the meanwhile moved closer to the center.

"Trying to!" She growled, repeating his own words from earlier, as the tool fumbled clumsily in the thick Dragonhide gloves, being too small for proper precision.

"Damnit! I can't reach it, the flower keeps wiggling in every direction, it won't hold still!" she cried. Before flinging off her gloves and grabbing the flower on the coconut-like stump, her gloves no longer impairing her hand's movements, quickly scooping up the toxic and moving away.

"Well, that wasn't so hard." She said breathing heavily, more strands of hair hanging loosely around her face, having escaped in their fight with the green menace. "But next time I'll wear my Lizard skin gloves, Dragonhide is impossible."

"Yeah." Was all he said, staring at her for a bit. Maybe she was having a bad day when they had first encountered? That, or she simply had a short fuse, blowing up quicker than Ron's cauldron in Potions. She seemed much less like a snob now in any case.

"Sad thing is that it's not even adult yet, things will only get harder." He said returning his eyes to the now silent plant, wondering what future lessons will hold in store.

"We'll just see when that time comes then." She finished.

"Well done Ms. Greengrass and Mr. Potter! You were the first to finish." Professor Sprout said, having appeared in front of them to inspect their job of cleaning up the plant. "The toxic has been removed but be more careful with the flower next time, it is an important part." She commented, indicating to the small rips the petals had endured.

"We'll try Professor." Greengrass said, not looking or sounding sorry at all for the plant.

Harry, meanwhile, looked around to see that they had indeed been the first ones to finish. The others nearing their own goal as he looked.

Hermione and Bulstrode were nearing the end with Hermione close to the flower, doing her best to stay gentle with the plant, while Bulstrode pro-wrestled against the plant.

Neville was doing a decent job, but Harry could see some scratches on Malfoy, the beginning must not have gone very well. Malfoy was scowling and probably dreading the coming lessons.

Ron and Davis looked much like Neville and Malfoy. Ron going for the flower, making stabbing like movements to it, his face red and Davis holding down the vines, probably because she didn't trust Ron with her safety. For good reason, he added.

Professor Sprout had helped the others until they all succeeded and stood in front of her afterwards. "This marks the end of the lesson people; I wish to leave you with the promise of a reward to the best cultivated Chimera plant at the end of its growth cycle! Until next week then."

They all trudged away in the moist grass, Slytherins and Gryffindors going separate ways, neither of them really focused on the reward. The last thing Harry could hear from them being the Davis girl speaking to Greengrass above the other Slytherins. "He was so red that I was beginning to think he was going to blast me to pieces! With his _eyes_ alone! I'm telling you, if looks could kill…"

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**Notes,**

**For some clarification:**

**Originally Amelia Bones was killed during Harry's summer, now it happens later, replacing the murder of Hannah Abbot's mother.**

**Dumbledore did not put on the ring when he went to retrieve it.**

**Harry did not receive the HB prince's book.**

**Separated some quotes in chapter 1, thank you to whoever the unknown guest was to point the formatting out. **

**I'm glad for the feedback regarding POV's and dialogue, learned more from them, will do my best to incorporate it into future chapters. POV's will be done differently, dialogue however is harder for me to improve quickly upon. (with time I hopefully will)**

**Lastly: Thank you all for reading, I hope that you peeps are enjoying my story. :)**


	4. Potions and Research

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter Universe and all the characters belong to J.K. Rowling.

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**Many thanks to TabiPrewett for Beta'ing this chapter!**

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They entered the Great Hall after the Slytherins, whom were already seated and eating dinner. The sky of the hall was once again filled with hundreds of floating candles under a starry night sky, casting a warm glow onto the tables. The sight never ceased to amaze him

His moment didn't last long as Ron dropped down on a bench coincidently knocking into nearby first and second years, incidentally creating more space for them to sit. Harry and Hermione both gestured a quick apology as they grabbed their food.

"Ron people were sitting there, you should be more—" Began Hermione only to be cut off as Ron finally gave in to his thoughts and feelings. Harry was already surprised it had taken him this long with Having walked from the greenhouses to the Great hall without a word.

"What are Sprout and Slughorn thinking? Working together with Slytherins! I'm lucky to have come out of this lesson without being ambushed while handling that monster like plant! Educational purposes, my ass! He ranted, finishing with a flourish as he grabbed food about.

"Ron!" Hermione cried. "Language! Don't say things like that, especially not with our underclassmen here!" she hissed.

Indeed as she said, quite few first and second years had stopped any activity to stare and listen at the foul display in front of them. Interested and confused.

"No, let them hear Hermione, it will be for their own safety. Oi midgets! You better not get near any of them. Slimy lot they are, house of dark wizards!" Ron continued, bits of food flying away as he spoke, the youngsters only backing away more from him as food rained down.

"Don't listen to him; he doesn't know what he is talking about." Hermione said hurriedly to the sizable amount of kids listening in, her head flashing to them, hair whipping Ron in the face.

"I do Hermione, it's obvious, they're all sneaky pricks. Stuffing their slated noses in Dark books, inhaling all that is Dark!"

"You can't judge all of them the same Ron, just because they are in Slytherin!" Hermione returned heatedly.

"She's right Ron; a lot of them are indeed, pricks, but not every single one. Davis wasn't so bad right? She did a decent job of controlling those vines earlier." Harry piped in.

Ron turned to look at him as if he had grown another head, food momentarily forgotten. "All just a plan, Harry to make me drop my guard so they can sink their poisonous fangs in me. I'll be damned if the same happens to you guys, you should be careful the coming weeks."

"I appreciate the thought, but I doubt the chances Ron. We're merely doing the assignment so that the plant doesn't sink its fangs into us." Harry tried to reason.

"You guys have gone barmy! What's going on? Did you get some of that toxic on you?" Ron asked, his face scrunched up in thought.

"It isn't very effective on humans Ron." Came Neville's voice who had just joined them on the table, sitting down.

"Slytherins must have done something with it then. It's the perfect cover." Ron contemplated darkly.

"Really Ron? Are you still being serious here?" Hermione sighed, losing patience.

"How can you be so sure? You had one lesson with a Slytherin and your buddies already?" Ron asked incredulous.

"That's more than just stretching it, maybe we managed to be civil Ron, you should try it out sometime." He said pointedly, not sue why he felt the need to clarify it.

"Maybe you should know that not everyone got along swimmingly Harry." Ron retorted. "Right Seamus, Dean?" He questioned them.

"Parkinson was horrible, kept looking at Malfoy with that jealous and swooning look. Still don't know how she manages to do both of them at the same time." Seamus complained while gathering various pieces of food on the table.

"Be glad that you didn't have that stuck up Zabini, too narcissistic to even help out and touch the damn plant." Dean said, giving his own opinion.

"And you Neville? Right now you are the worst off with that ferret!" Ron continued, rounding on Neville, who nearly dropped his fork at the sudden attention.

"I-it wasn't all that bad really, Malfoy said very little to me, even following some of my advise on the plant." Neville said the events and story still surreal to him.

"Malfoy is just waiting for an opening Neville, you better keep watch." Ron said seriously.

"Yeah Ron, I'll do that." Neville said, not sure how to respond to Ron's ominous remarks.

"You're going off topic Ron, we were talking about all wizards and witches from Slytherin being dark, not what we thought about them in the Herbology lesson!" Hermione said with a look of exasperation.

"Why are you so keen of defending the snakes Hermione?" Ron said frustrated at Hermione, his fist slamming down on the table, making the tableware briefly clatter at the force.

"I'm trying to make you see that it's simply ridiculous to think that twenty-five percent of the wizarding population is Dark because they were sorted into Slytherin! She cried her own frustration mounting.

"Well it could be true Hermione; a lot of them are probably Dark in secret!" Ron quickly shot back.

"Yeah Ron you're completely right!" Lavender suddenly said, agreeing with him. Still for some unknown reason trying to get closer to Ron. Probably, or hopefully not believing that every single person in Slytherin is dark but wanting to get in his good book.

This however, only made Ron more confident in his case.

Harry saw that like Ron; Hermione was fuming, for multiple reasons as her eyes briefly shifted to Lavender at her outcry, before she visibly got more control of herself and sank back. Tired from their lesson and from trying to make him understand.

"Well, they will show their true colors, and it will be green. I'm going to the common room." He finished, grumbling, put off by her sudden silence, taking an armful of food with him as he left.

They waited in the silence Ron had left them, people around them slowly returning to their own business again, Seamus and Dean striking up a conversation again, while Lavender and Parvati did the same.

He began after another moment, asking Neville, as Hermione was in a bad mood right now, judging by her expression and posture.

"So Neville how was your lesson with Malfoy?" "I must say that things went differently than I had expected them to be, although that was for the better." Harry asked, curious to learn more about Malfoy's behavior this year.

"I feel the same way Harry. I expected Malfoy to start insulting me as soon as I came within range, although none of it happened in the end. He had stayed silent, only speaking a few words when necessary." Neville said, fingering his fork.

"Strange…" Harry said softly, the rest of his thoughts only being spoken in his mind.

"I think he's just getting little sleep, he looks a bit bad and was distracted a lot." Neville reasoned his behavior, making Harry look over to the Slytherin table where Malfoy quietly ate his dinner, exchanging few words with Crabbe and Goyle. Harry was quite a distance away, but could see that Malfoy looked as tired as he had been during their lesson.

The question still burning inside him was why, for what reason or purpose was Malfoy losing all this sleep? Not that he was the best to point this out as his own research nights went up to midnight. Spending hours of work on something, which might not give him the answers, he seeks.

For now he will wait for any other signs coming off Malfoy.

"And you Harry, how was yours with Greengrass? You guys were really doing a good job. A little bickering but miles better than any of us." Neville asked tentatively pulling harry out of his musings.

"It wasn't so bad. We said little to nothing really. The few words spoken were from Greengrass cursing." He responded after a moment, looking away from Malfoy to answer him.

"Oh yeah she does that quite easily despite her calm demeanor most of the time." Said Neville, smiling a bit as he remembered.

"You know her then?" Harry asked neutrally. Neville's answer seems to indicate more experience with her.

"No not really. I saw her at a few galas my gran used to take me to. We talked a few minutes every time. More for pleasantries than anything else."

"Oh. You go to parties and balls Neville?" Harry asked curious for what it entailed.

"Yes, but they're mostly for pureblood politics and business. Showing your allegiance, standing and interest." Neville summed up absentmindedly, the memories probably not being very pleasant, as he had kept his answer short and prodded at his food absentmindedly.

Neville likely didn't have a very good time amongst the other purebloods. Harry could already see his grandmother trying to push him up front; encouraging him to make conversation and connections with people he had no desire of even talking to. Neville didn't work that way, only desiring to be treated normally with no stuck up people looking down on him.

"You said your grandmother used to take you to them, meaning you aren't anymore?" Harry asked for confirmation.

"You're right, I'm not. I told her in fourth year, she wasn't happy with my sudden choice, but my reasons and motivation softened her up."

"What did you do then?" Harry asked wondering what Neville did to convince her so quickly; she seemed to be a strict person at the very least, judging by Neville's examples and descriptions.

"It was after you had completed the first task. I realized after seeing you in mortal danger against the dragon, a dragon that you had no desire of fighting with. Having no saying in the matter and being forced to compete." Neville said pushing his plate away and looking at Harry, his face serious.

"I don't see how any of that matters Neville." He said confused.

"It matters because it made me realize that I had a choice, while you didn't. I felt ashamed of my behavior, simply choosing to feel bad about my situation, rather than doing something about it." Neville said softly, looking at his now empty plate before fixating on Harry's again.

"I gathered myself and stood my ground against my gran, making sure never to give an inch and stick to the choice I had made. The choice I was capable of."

"I don't know what stories are completely true but I know that you always manage to plow through everything Harry. Always being in the position of having to, instead of choosing to.

"You are a strong person Harry, I admire that about you." Neville finished, holding the moment before noticing how Hermione and a few other Gryffindor's had been completely transfixed on him, having kept silent the entire time, just opting to listen.

Harry himself was also at a loss of words; Neville had looked so confident in that one moment, his back straight, shoulders squared, and his voice like iron. It was probably the one thing he had ever sounded absolutely sure of, without doubt or hesitation whatsoever.

The praise made him feel quite embarrassed, but also lifted his spirits. Hearing someone speak so honestly to him. Neville was a stronger person than Harry had ever imagined.

"Thank you Neville… that means a lot to me." He said slowly, unsure of how to respond.

The silence that followed was soon broken by Parvati giggling. "Do the girls at Hogwarts need to start worrying about anything between you two?" She said before completely breaking down, others around the table joining her.

"Yeah I'm done for dinner, you guys coming to the common room?" Said Harry promptly, rising to his feet, any remaining desire for food vanishing at their joke.

"Y-yeah Harry, r-right behind you." Hermione said, her voice shaking in restrained laughter.

"C-coming!" Neville called out distressed, stumbling after them, not wanting to stay at the laughing table.

* * *

Another week had passed and Harry found to his ire that the knowledge in the books he had collected, namely: 'Rebirth and Resurrection 'and 'Dark Rituals' only went so far into their specifics. Information on the Dark rituals had been quite complete, entailing: uses, history, effects, and requirements, and in some, even instructions. However they mostly spoke about that; uses for each ritual, transfer or mutation, whether it was for getting an extra appendage or an enhanced body.

All rituals had the basis of the wizard or witch being alive in their own body, which were simply unsatisfied with the level it performed on, or wished to bring changes to their bodies. In each instance it required your own physical body to be sacrificed or modified by said ritual, taking away or adding to something that is already there.

A few cases described the transfer of your soul into another vessel but these required your own original physical body to be destroyed in the process, with a considerable chance of failure during the transfer, resulting in death. Harry knew for one that Voldemort wasn't one to leave things to chance, even above that he also didn't have his own physical body to sacrifice even if he had wanted to.

It left him with the strong notion that Voldemort hadn't, or isn't using any Dark rituals to accomplish his return to earth from soul to container after being severed from his body. Voldemort had used, as Dumbledore too had said; 'A very dark and ancient ritual to regain his body', using his container, a mangled body, but still flesh and blood as a basis, with his actual soul inside for the ritual to change it into a body of his liking.

But it didn't explain how he was capable of getting the container in the first place.

'Rebirth and Resurrection ' had been a lot less complete; it was the book that went much more into the soul, its workings and possibilities with Dark magic's. Harry however began to skim more and more though the book as days went on. Multiple methods and articles were brought up and explained but none sounded anything like he was searching for.

There were methods and theories of returning a deceased witch or wizard back but most of them required animal or even human sacrifices, yielding weak bodies, being more of a means to stay and watch the world, rather than walk, speak or even battle in it. Above all they seemed to be similar to the explanations of the ghosts and wraiths book, the recalled spirits were merely an imprint or reflection of the dead.

He noticed however that the information and examples all followed the same trend; the quantity coupled with cruelness of the act, defined the quality of the result.

He looked at the big mechanical clock, midnight. 'I better pack up and get to sleep.' Harry thought to himself knowing that classes would begin again in the morning.

* * *

The following day he stood at the door leading into the Potions classroom, waiting to be led inside by Slughorn. Gryffindors and Slytherins standing on opposite sides, not particularly happy with seeing their partners for tomorrow's Herbology lesson again, or just seeing each other in general.

Harry yawned behind his hand; he had been making late nights the whole month, waiting for everyone in his dorm to fall asleep before putting his cloak on and slipping out of the curtains around his bed to the Restricted Section. This way the others wouldn't know he would be gone, as long as they didn't check inside his bed. It also hadn't helped his sleep when he occasionally woke up in the night, nightmares making themselves known again from time to time.

He had spent more time writing down spells he could use during his trips, namely, Curses Jinxes and some Charms. This evening he was going to start working on his spellwork, improving and expanding his assortment of spells.

He stopped his thoughts, glancing at Ron and Hermione, who still stood with him in silence, irked expressions on their faces. The relationship between his two friends had been going in ups and downs every day lately, fighting over anything you could have a different opinion on, ending in disagreement before letting it cool down by a nights rest and beginning from start a few days later.

He himself also didn't know what to do with it, trying to change the topic or having them forget their mood was useless as they didn't have desire to speak further about anything during these moments. Half of the day they would be getting along just fine before restarting the cycle again and ending up red faced with each other.

He could tell that something was bothering them, but he would wait and let them sort it out, they always do.

"Sorry, sorry everyone!" Slughorn said cheerfully. "I was just talking to Professor Snape about the time I went to Greece with Professor Galatea Merrythought and forgot the time! Brilliant teacher she was indeed." Slughorn said trailing off as he plucked at his mustache, twirling the ends between his fingers. While Harry could only envision Snape staring straight ahead as he listened to Slughorn, completely uninterested, murmuring a yes here and there.

"But no matter, let's get this class started! I have wonderful, absolutely wonderful news for all of you!" Slughorn said overjoyed, stepping into the Potions room and quickly moving behind his desk.

Harry himself also moved to stand behind his desk, Ron beside him and Hermione at the table next to them with Neville.

Slughorn stood, waiting for everybody to stand ready before he began, jumping right in. "Now, you have undoubtedly heard from my colleague; professor Sprout, about my ideas for more House friendliness and coexistence, yes?"

Grumpy murmurs were his answer.

"Indeed, from this idea of mine stemmed the root to our current development, being biased in later wizarding life will do nobody good, only resulting in bad business and socialization. As such we will be working towards mature team effort between ourselves. In later life you will be asked to see past the school housings and work with your fellow witches and wizards in whatever the environment may be." Slughorn explained.

"The relationship between Gryffindor and Slytherin is without doubt; diabolical. Making it for that exact reason the perfect practice for later experiences." He continued, pacing back and forth in front of the class, twirling his mustache all the while.

"As of today I will be happy to announce that in the Potions lessons we will be applying the same concept as Herbology!" Slughorn continued jovially, either oblivious to their opinions or completely ignoring them as they instantly began moaning at his words.

"We will be using the same pairings here to encourage growth between each other, in our lessons we will be focusing on potions which require four hands regarding instructions, and two brains on knowledge, now hophop to your partner!" He finished, looking expectantly at his class.

"Bloody hell. Just had to ruin my day, didn't you." Ron said, softly cursing.

"Good luck Ron, don't be too hard on her." Harry said, trying to encourage Ron in being more open minded.

"I would rather make a potion out of my own shite, and drink it." Ron muttered sourly.

So much for being open minded Harry idly thought as he walked away from Ron to find Greengrass again. He found her standing behind her table on the opposite side of the class. Her vials and tools lined up neatly.

"Well, I guess we'll be working together a day earlier then." Harry said, standing next to her, not wanting to begin with some lame greeting again.

"Disappointed that it came a day earlier?" She asked.

"E-er no I just meant-" He began, trying to get rid of any misinterpretations.

"Upset that you now have to do it twice a week then?" She interjected her tone still light.

"No! Listen! In fact I'm quite content with this, it's miles better than any of the other Slytherins I could have been paired with."

"I'm flattered Potter, but I was just messing with you. You're quite easy aren't you?" She said, grinning slightly.

"I…you're horrible, you weren't like this during Herbology." He said after a moment.

"I was simply looking for a compliment while wanting to see whether or not you would respond like a stuck up ponce. Besides I was a bit busy in the greenhouse with trying to remove toxic waste from a coconut-flower-plant in a damp-cramped-space filled with sweaty people, how about you Potter?" She said her gaze fixated on him, making him squirm a bit.

"I see..." Was all he managed, at a loss for words. "Well in any case." He said, bringing up his hand for a handshake, smiling a bit at her. "Not too late for introductions I hope?"

"I guess it doesn't matter anymore after six years Potter." She said shaking his hand, her hand small and soft. "Daphne Greengrass. Pleased to formally meet you."

"Harry Potter." He said simply, knowing that his name would be nothing new to her.

"Merlin's Garden Gnomes!" Boomed a voice suddenly behind them, making Greengrass jump before he gathered them both in his arms pressing them against his belly.

"Just wonderful! Seeing you two get along so well already! A prime example which the whole school should do well following too!" He said holding them a moment longer, treasuring his most precious samples before releasing them and bustling away.

"Especially you Mr. Weasley! You are already redder than a Charm engorged tomato! Much work to be done here I fear." He commented seeing Ron unhappy about his situation.

Harry looked back to Greengrass whose eyebrows were set in a slight frown and biting her lip, holding back any nasty comments from his sudden ambush.

"Now, as for the assignment; Skele-Gro! A potion capable of regrowing any lost bones through either having them vanished or missing through other means. Also used when said victim has too many bone fractures to heal accordingly and in such cases vanishes and regrowing will be faster, cheaper and safer. The downside is that it tastes horrible and the regrowing process is quite painful.

Harry grimaced, as he thought about his experience in second year with Lockhart.

"Instructions are on the board and ingredients in the closets, remember; four hands, two brains. Begin!" He said waving his wand at the board to reveal the instructions.

Greengrass immediately set to work, repositioning tools while putting others away. "You grab the ingredients and I will set up things here." She said, her voice all business.

"Sure, be right back." He told her, already moving towards the cabinets, grabbing the ingredients he had seen on the board and textbook. Better to let her do what she does best while I fill in, he thought.

Moving back to their table he saw that several tools had been put away and the cauldron moved. He carefully set all the ingredients down on a spot she seemed to have cleared up for them.

"Good, let's get to work" She said, apparently glad he had caught on to her drift in her positioning. "I'll start on the Chinese Chomping Cabbage while you work on getting the Puffer-fish poison out."

"You sure? The book says we shouldn't start on the Puffer-fish until halfway through." He asked skeptically on her work order.

"Yes, but in the instruction above that they ask you to add the Cabbage and stir for fifteen minutes. Which is a bit unnecessary as the Cabbage is a stable ingredient, occasionally stirring will be enough, allowing us to work on extracting the Puffer-fish poison and adding it to the cauldron in a fresher state, It's hard to extract and will take longer than is good for the potion." She explained to him, impressing and instantly reminding him she was Slughorn's prodigy here.

The lesson continued like this, Greengrass would give him instructions on what to work on, and tips on how to do it better. She was indeed, a brilliant potion maker as she only so much as glanced at the instructions before knowing how to make the potion better, switching up order, amounts and methods at a moment's notice.

The class had ended and Harry looked down on a perfectly beige coloured liquid, the unpleasant smell being more than a clear reminder that it had been made correctly.

"You're really good at this." He complimented her, grinning.

She immediately gave off some of that haughtiness again, her hands on her hips, trying to act as if it was no big deal. "I guess I have some feeling for it, yes. You're doing good by taking notice of it." She said trying to hide her own satisfaction.

She may have called him easy but Harry could already tell that sometimes she was a very easy person to read herself.

"Excellent work you two, a fantastic cauldron!" Slughorn said popping up again and looking into their creamy cauldron.

"Although I'm sad to note that others didn't get it down just yet, opting to trust their own hands and minds rather than relying on their partners." Slughorn continued, trying to sound sad but failing rather badly as he practically had a spring in his step about their success.

Harry looked around to see what he was talking about and saw Hermione looking severely disappointed in her potion as it had a brown colour, probably having kept Bulstrode to handle the ingredients while she worked in the potion, which probably worked for the best but still yielded quite crude ingredients at the hands of Bulstrode.

Ron looked darkly at an empty cauldron while Davis had an expression that said 'Well, I tried.' Luckily not looking very bothered by it all.

Malfoy and Neville too, had an empty cauldron. Malfoy never was that good and Neville, sadly was even worse than any of them.

The others had their cauldrons still filled but were a mix of different colours in the brownish area.

"You aren't half bad as rumours say you are Potter." Harry heard Greengrass say as they each parted ways between the passing students to their own common rooms.

* * *

It was after six in the evening when Harry walked to hallways and climbed stairs, leading himself to the fourth floor. They had eaten some time ago in which Hermione and Ron had once again engaged in their prejudice argument, ending as usual with Ron leaving and Hermione grumpy, before she too excused herself to the library.

Currently he was looking for a classroom to practice his collection of spells in for the first time. However he already knew of a perfect classroom when he entered the empty hallway he found himself standing in. He stopped at one after walking on for a few doors, hoping that his memory had served him well he opened the door.

Stepping inside, his footsteps sounding a bit hollow he knew for sure he had found it again. He was standing in the unused classroom, the room looked exactly like it did in his first year. The dark shapes of desks and chairs were piled against the walls. It was here where he had found the Mirror of Erised, and saw his deceased relatives including his parents.

It was also practical regardless of the sentimental value of seeing his parents for the first time. The mirror wasn't even present now; Dumbledore had moved it long ago.

He levitated one of the tables from the walls to put his spell notes on it for easy reading. His plan for the coming time was to learn new spells, maybe try coming up with spell chains to corner any target fluidly, using technique and ideas. It would certainly be better than casting random spells at his opponent; of course he must stay cautious of becoming predictable when doing this.

Spells in particularly he wanted to learn were: the Bone-Breaking curse; spoken as Os Fractionis, Scalpere; a stronger version of the Diffindo, Expulso; a spell that causes an object to explode and the Frigoris Pedes Charm which would momentarily slow an opponent's feet. A harmless Charm but useful when used in combination with others, at least that was what he thought, having no actual experience with it but feeling that it would.

Harry made sure to cast Silencing Charms before aiming his wand at one of the pillars in the classroom, his practice target chosen.

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**Thank you all for reading, hope you enjoyed it and will continue to do so in the future.**

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	5. Your Secrets and My Curiosity

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter Universe and all the characters belong to J.K. Rowling.

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**Special thanks to Yuigfhf for beta-ing this chapter and removing obvious grammar mistakes!**

* * *

Harry sat under his invisibility cloak again in the darkness that was the Restricted Section. Gripping his quill hard is his fingers, threatening to break it through the force. His parchment was littered with notes, scribbles, comments and questions.

Two more weeks had passed now, and his research produced little result after looking into multiple books, marking this as a month total of research without finding his answers, others were answered but new ones had taken their place with the main question still being unexplained; How was Voldemort capable of returning to physical bodies?

There was, however one subject that repeatedly came to his attention; soul anchoring, in which the soul itself of a living wizard or witch would be mutilated by some means, splitting off a portion which would then be chained to earth.

That, however was all the information he seemed capable of finding. The means of mutilation were left open, as was the process of binding it to earth. But he was growing confident that this was the method Voldemort had used. It seemed, even as vague as it was; the best explanation to his wretched soul clinging to earth.

In what sense would the soul be bound to earth? What means, if there are any, are known to destroy it? Had this anything to do with Dumbledore's theory?

More than a month had passed since he last properly saw Dumbledore, which had been after his memory lesson. He had only seen Dumbledore a few times during the meals this month.

Was the Headmaster going on more 'explorations', retrieving more about Voldemort's past? Researching his unknown theory? Collecting memories? Probably all three of them he mused. Frustrated at all the unanswered questions.

I just have to figure this out, then he will have no choice but to tell me.

He took of his glasses, and rubbed his tired eyes before repositioning his glasses again, glancing at the large mechanical clock which had been ticking In near complete silence. 1:00 a.m. it had become late again.

He had spent the last two weeks doing practice in the evening, still going to the Restricted Section after curfew, it made each day a busy day when coupled with lessons and homework.

The good news was that he now had a good idea of the damage his spells could do judging by the damage on the pillars after each spell. The damage was easy to fix as Hogwarts was a self-repairing castle, coupled with a Reparo Charm it would result in quickly repairing the pillars, reviving his practice targets.

He had learned the Frigoris Pedes Charm (which was quite awkward, as he had to do it on his own feet), Scalpere, and Expulso. The Bone-Breaking Curse however, proved to be a bit more difficult and required more time to get down right.

He picked up his books and items, yawning before putting them back where they came from, being careful not to wake the portraits.

* * *

"Come on Tracey, I know that it's cold outside but your beginning to take the size a troll, not to mention we have Warming Charms to help us." Daphne whined at Tracey who had taken a good ten minutes to pick a matching pair of earmuffs and gloves alone. Not even having mentioned the rest, her patience was wearing a bit thin.

"Relax, we have more than enough time left! And it's very cold outside, nobody wants to see two girls frozen to the bone." Tracey said as she grabbed another pair of gloves instead of putting them away.

"Summer will arrive at this pace though." Daphne said back, sitting down on her dorm bed.

"Okay, all set!" Tracey called out as soon as Daphne sat on her bed, having just been waiting for it.

"Thank you." Daphne said looking exasperated, rising again from her bed. Moving out of the dorms and out of the common room with Tracey.

The walk into Hogsmeade was not enjoyable. Daphne wrapped her scarf over her lower face; the exposed part soon felt both raw and numb. The road to the village was full of students bent double against the bitter wind. More than once Daphne wondered whether they might not have had a better time in the warm common room.

When they finally reached Hogsmeade they saw that Zonko's Joke Shop had been boarded up, Daphne could only guess to the reasons, but wasn't too let down by it. She was glad they were allowed to go at all, she hardly ever went to the joke shop anyway.

They walked on into the cold streets of the village, Warming Charms only doing so much to keep the relentless frigid winds out as they shivered. But soon she saw her favorite reason for coming to Hogsmeade; Honeydukes, the sweets shop.

She pointed a gloved hand towards the shop, but didn't say anything, Tracey knew it would be their first stop, it always was.

She soon felt her skin prickling from the heat inside the shop as they stepped inside, a blast of aroma's hitting her red nose.

Shelves were as always filled to the brim with sweets from top to bottom in every colour, throughout the shop were also baskets with a variety of random wild sweets, and on the counters stood the more delicate or intricate ones for sale. She nearly knew every candy here after six years of coming to the shop.

She grabbed a plastic bag and began loading it with all kinds of sweets she liked as she moved past the shelves and counters: Cauldron Cakes, Sugar Quills, Choco-Loco, Pumpkin Pastries… Had she already mentioned she loved sweets?

"Ah, Daphne and Tracey, great to see you two again, how is school?" asked a smiling Ambrosius Flume, who was a rather large, bald man, and the shop owner of Honeydukes.

"Quiet is the best way to describe it I guess." Daphne said absentmindedly, scanning the shelves for new sweets, throwing a few in her bag after spotting them.

"I can imagine, the same could be said for Hogsmeade, streets never been this deserted." Flume said looking a bit morose through his window and onto the near-deserted streets of the village.

"But dark times will pass and we can only make the best of it meanwhile." He said the look quickly leaving his face for a more upbeat one.

"Yes, your right." Said Daphne brought back to the situation at home. As of yet she still had to receive any bad news from her parents, so far the Death Eaters had not come back yet for more 'conversations'. Fortunately, Tracey also had yet to receive more visits.

"Say, Mr. Flumel do you know why Zonko's shop is boarded up?" Tracey asked, wondering if the Candy shop owner had heard or seen anything while in the village.

"I don't know the details, but I believe that he went away on a 'vacation' with his family, finding the weather a bit 'harsh' you see?" Flumel said, a mixture of serious and aloofness in his voice.

"Ah, he must have quite some muggleborns in his family then." Tracey mused.

"Indeed, I wish him good luck, but we are getting off topic. In a sweets shop you talk about sweets! Come over here I have my latest pride here." Flumel said cheerfully again, beckoning them over to the shops main counter.

Daphne plumbed her sweet filled bag down next to Tracey's, her bag towering over hers.

"I'm still amazed that you can always eat all those sweets and not look like a Jelly Slug." Tracey said looking at her monolith sized bag.

"Sometimes I'm also amazed of myself Tracey, it's okay, I guess it's just my metabolism." She said puffin out her chest a bit at her 'ability'.

"Now, ladies I present to you my new sweet; Mousse Cakes!" He exclaimed dramatically, setting a small brown cake in front of them, looking like it contained every known colour in the universe.

"It's a chocolate cake with strawberry mousse and clotted dream, besides that it-"

"Doesn't matter, give me five of them." Daphne cut in, grinning, already knowing enough.

"You know, sometimes I just wish you suddenly woke up like the Jelly Slug that you are." Tracey said looking jealous at her and the cakes.

Stepping outside the shop again with the friendly goodbyes of Flumel behind them, they were instantly assaulted by the cold again. Luckily for them they weren't bothered by their purchases as they were given Weightless and Shrinking Charms on their bags, however that was mostly done for Daphne's.

"Let's go to the Three Broomsticks," said Tracey. "It'll be warm."

"Yeah, I'm up for a Butterbeer." Daphne said, thinking about the sweet and warm drink.

They were coming directly to the left of the shop, partially walking along the blind spots of the building. The streets were not very busy; nobody was lingering to chat, just hurrying toward their destinations. The exceptions were the golden trio and a squat, bandylegged man with long, straggly, ginger hair

"Oh, look Daphne. It's the trio." Tracey said indicating her head to the entrance of the Three Broomsticks as they came closer.

"Mundungus!" she heard Harry suddenly yell making the man jump and drop an ancient suitcase, which burst open, releasing what looked like the entire contents of a junk shop window.

Daphne quickly pushes herself and Tracey to the wall of the shop, standing just around the corner, but still out of sight. Not even sure herself why she hid them, she guessed that it was because Potter's voice sounded quite different; hostile, and the atmosphere had quickly turned serious.

Daphne saw that Tracey had nearly blurted something out in the moment, but thankfully managed to keep silent in time. Their distance was too short now.

"Oh, 'ello, 'Arry," said the man who was apparently Mundungus, with a most unconvincing stab at airiness. "Well, don't let me keep ya."

She heard him scrabbling on the ground to retrieve the contents of his suitcase with every appearance of a man eager to be gone.

"Are you selling this stuff?" asked Potter, his voice sounding angry and restrained.

"Oh, well, gotta scrape a living," said Mundungus. "Gimme that!"

Weasley had apparently stooped down and picked up something.

"Hang on," He said slowly. "This looks familiar-"

"Thank you!" said Mundungus, shuffling of thick winter clothes suggesting he had snatched the object out of his hand and stuffed it back into the case. "Well, I'll see you all-URGH!"

Daphne jumped a bit at the sudden sound, Potter must have pinned Mundungus against the wall of the pub by the throat as she heard the broken words in his voice.

"Harry!" squealed Granger. Distressed at the sudden move.

"You took that from Sirius's house, that had the Black family crest on it." Potter said in a low voice.

"I-no—what-?" spluttered Mundungus, who was likely turning purple.

"What did you do, the night he left and died? Strip the place?!" He continued, snarling.

"I—uh-"

"Is that how you repay us? Give it back!"

"Harry, you mustn't!" shrieked Granger,

There was a bang, and she heard gasping and spluttering, Mundungus had apparently managed to free himself, quickly seized his fallen case, then a loud crack followed, he had Disapparated.

Potter swore at the top of his voice, "COME BACK, YOU THIEVING-!"

"There's no point, Harry." Said Granger softly. "Mundungus will probably be far away by now. There's no point yelling."

"He's stole Sirius's stuff! Stole it!" She heard Potter say frustrated.

"Let's go inside for now Harry. It won't be the last we see of him" Weasley said supportively.

She heard them go through the door of the Three Broomsticks. Releasing the breath she had been unknowingly holding, coming out in a large cloud of condense.

"The hell was that all about!?" Tracey shouted, looking confused.

"Shh!" Daphne hissed at her, looking around if anyone else had seen them, suddenly paranoid at being overheard themselves.

"I don't know Tracey, a lot of it makes no sense. Stealing? When Sirius left and died? Did he mean THE Sirius Black?"

"He did say it had the Black family crest on one of those items." Tracey said looking a bit shocked at the sudden events.

"This is just too absurd, why would Harry Potter be concerned about the stuff of Sirius Black being nicked?" she asked, frowning and biting her lip in thought.

"Maybe it was a different Sirius, who had in some way gained a few lost items from the Black family?" Tracey said, making another hypothesis.

"Possible, but it sounds equally far-stretched. Anyway we waited long enough, let's go inside, see what else we hear." She said, shivering in the cold.

"What? you want to continue spying on them? Eavesdropping?" Tracey said sounding incredulous.

"I call it information gathering." Daphne said simply, luckily still having the decency to blush a bit before dragging Tracey out of their corner to the door.

"It's the same Daphne, and haven't you heard enough?" Tracey said reluctantly coming along.

"No, far from enough. Let's get to the bottom of this Tracey! Aren't you curious?" Daphne asked, abandoning the little decency she had found moments before.

"Yes, but nowhere near your level. Your making me doubt again whether or not you should do better as a journalist, instead of potions maker." Tracey replied, but was still walking with her.

They waded through the people in the pub, making a bit of a detour to avoid being directly spotted, and ending up on a table behind them, a thin roster separating their tables for separation and privacy.

Privacy she paid no heed to as she and Tracey tried to stick as close to the wall as possible to hear them, positioning themselves to look as if they were conversing with each other, hoping to avoid any suspicion and not look like a complete eavesdroppers; which they actually were.

"Can't the Order control Mundungus?" Potter demanded of the other two in a furious whisper. "Can't they at least stop him stealing everything that's not fixed down when he's at headquarters?"

"Shh!" said Granger desperately, likely looking around to make sure nobody was listening. Making Daphne anxious for a moment, thinking they had been discovered, before relaxing again as Granger continued. "Harry, I'd be annoyed too, I know it's your things he's stealing—"

Potter gagged on his butterbeer; surprised.

"Yeah, it's also my stuff!" he said. "No wonder he wasn't pleased to see me! Well, I'm going to tell Dumbledore what's going on, he's the only one who scares Mundungus."

"Good idea," whispered Granger, sounding clearly pleased that Harry was calming down. "Ron, what are you staring at?"

"Nothing," said Weasley, making a bad attempt at covering whatever he had been staring at, Daphne could only guess that it had probably been Madam Rosmerta, whom multiple had crushes on.

"I expect 'nothing's' in the back getting more Firewhisky," said Granger waspishly.

Weasley ignored this jibe, sipping his drink in what he evidently considered to be a dignified silence.

Granger drummed her fingers on the table, something clearly bothering her. She waited for the moment Potter had finished his drink and said, "Shall we call it a day and go back to school, then?"

The other two silently agreed; it had likely not been a fun trip and the weather was getting worse, winds picking up even more force. They drew their cloaks tightly around them, rearranged their scarves, pulled on their gloves, then followed Katie Bell and a friend out of the pub and back up the High Street.

"Well… that raised even more questions if you ask me." Tracey said, arching an eyebrow at her.

"True but we also learned more, something about some Order business, and that they have headquarters. The stolen items also seemed to be Potter's property." Daphne summed up.

"So Sirius-something gave Potter his family Black stuff?" Tracey said, following her thoughts.

"Yes, maybe through a will, remember that this Sirius person died. He might have given it all to Potter." Daphne reasoned.

Tracey had opened her mouth to say something but was cut off by a scream from outside. A terrible one full of anguish. The voice screamed and screamed, the hairs on Daphne's neck standing up from terror.

She and Tracey shared a look, her eyes big and surprised, before they rushed out of the pub to see what was going on outside, the rest of the bar following them.

On the street she saw a Gryffindor; Katie Bell if she remembered correctly, hanging suspended in the air, being the source of the screaming as she continued. Her eyes open seeing only things she could see, clearly causing her terrible anguish.

The trio rushed forward to help, they grabbed Katie's legs, and she fell on top of them; Potter and Weasley managed to catch her but she was writhing so much they could hardly hold her. Instead they lowered her to the ground where she thrashed and screamed, apparently unable to recognize any of them.

She saw Potter look around in a hurry; except for them standing some distance away, there were no teachers to help.

"Stay there!" he shouted at the others over the howling wind. "I'm going for help!"

He began to sprint toward the school, jumping over a fence and disappearing around the corner.

She saw how the little group tried to calm the screaming Katie Bell down to no avail, she was completely delirious, thrashing around screaming her lungs out while the group now began to restrain her flailing limbs, trying to protect themselves and herself from getting any injuries.

Daphne briefly felt the need to try and help her, but stopped herself, realizing that it would do more bad than good. Two Slytherins joining in offering help would do nothing to reassure the situation. And even if that wasn't the problem they still would be dead weight, there was nothing they could do to help Bell in this unknown state, trying anything might make things worse.

She was soon relieved when she saw Potter running back again with the groundskeeper, his figure surprisingly fast, already understanding the situation.

"Get back!" shouted Hagrid. "Lemme see her!"

"Something's happened to her!" sobbed Leanne. "I don't know what —"

The groundskeeper stared at Bell for a second, then without a word, bent down, scooped her into his arms, and ran off toward the castle with her. Within seconds, bell's piercing screams had died away and the only sound was the roar of the wind.

The wind picked up even more now; rendering Daphne and the others unable to hear more of what they were saying to each other.

Weasley bent down, his hand outstretched, but Potter seized his arm and pulled him back, making a face that said he needed to be careful, before he crouched down. Something was poking out of the paper, something small as she didn't see anything from her position.

Potter turned back to the girl who had been with Bell asking questions to which she replied while Granger comforted her. The girl however seemed to realize something before breaking down in renewed sobs.

He turned back to the object on the ground, hesitated for a moment, then pulled his scarf from around his face and, ignoring his friends, and carefully covered the item in it and picked it up. He stood up, said something and began moving hurriedly towards the castle, the others following him.

* * *

Harry and the others had come across Professor McGonagall first and followed her upstairs and into her office. There was a fireplace in the room, but it did little to alleviate the chilly atmosphere.

"Well?" she said sharply after she closed the door and stared at them and the sobbing Leanne. "What in heaven's name happened?"

Slowly and with many pauses, caused by her crying, Leanne explained to the Professor how odd Katie had acted after her return from the bathroom in the Three Broomsticks with the suspicious package. An argument had ensued between the two as to why she would want to deliver an unknown package to someone inside Hogwarts which resulted with the package being torn open.

"All right." Said Professor McGonagall, surprisingly kindly, when Leanne could no longer go on to describe what happened after that due to her crying and shock. "You can leave, Leanne. Please get something from Madam Pomfrey to help against the shock."

"What happened when Katie touched the necklace?" McGonagall asked as soon as Leanne had left the room.

Harry took word to continue the story, telling the Professor how Katie had risen into the air and had begun screaming, after which they had pulled her down and taken her to the castle.

He had quickly asked for Dumbledore after his explanation, wanting to inform him on Malfoy's life threatening deed, surely the package had been meant for the headmaster, Katie had not gone to him with the package; meaning he hadn't been the target. The only other person of importance would then have been Dumbledore himself or maybe even Slughorn due to his past ties with Death Eaters.

"That is quite the information, Potter, but the Headmaster won't return for the next few days." said Professor McGonagall, looking surprised.

"Won't return?" Harry repeated angrily. He needed to talk to Dumbledore right now! Not wait several days!

"Yes, Potter, he won't return for some days. He also has business outside of the school!" McGonagall said curtly. "But if you have thoughts or further information on this, then you can be assured that the information will rest secure with me!"

Harry hesitated for a moment. Professor McGonagall wasn't one of the people he usually confided in, nor did she seem very tolerant against wild theories unlike Dumbledore. However, this was a life-and-death matter.

"I think Draco Malfoy gave Katie that necklace, Professor. He Imperiused her, and ordered to have it brought into Hogwarts."

On either side of him his friends responded awkwardly by either shuffling their feet or fumbling with something in their reach. Obviously embarrassed by him.

He ignored the reaction of his friends and pushed on, telling her about following Malfoy to Borgin and Burkes and the conversation they had overheard between him and Mr. Borgin.

Professor McGonagall looked skeptical when he had finished speaking. "This is a very serious accusation, Potter, an accusation that doesn't seem to have very solid evidence. Am I to understand that Malfoy took something to Borgin and Burkes for repair?"

"No, Professor, he didn't have it with him. He just wanted Borgin to tell him how to mend something, But that's not the point, he bought something back then, and I'm confident that it was the necklace-"

"-Malfoy left the shop with the same package? Did you see this with your own eyes?" McGonagall asked quickly.

"No, he told Borgin to keep it in the shop for him-"

"But Harry," Hermione interrupted, "Malfoy said no when he asked him whether or not he wanted to take it with him-"

"Because he didn't need it yet, obviously!" Retorted Harry angrily.

"'How would I look carrying that down the street?' Was what he actually said." Said Hermione.

"Well, he would look a bit of a prat carrying a necklace across the street." interjected Ron.

"Oh, Ron," said Hermione despairingly, "It would be safely packaged, and would easily be hidden inside a cloak. Whatever it was he reserved at the shop was big and noisy, something he couldn't drag down the street without being noticed, in any case." She pressed on loudly, before Harry could interrupt.

"I myself went inside to ask Borgin about the necklace. Borgin just told me the price, he didn't say it was already sold or anything-"

"Well, your acting wasn't the best, he realised what you were up to after five seconds." Harry rebutted irritably.

"That's enough!" said Professor McGonagall, as Hermione opened her mouth to retort, looking furious. "Potter, I appreciate you telling me this, but we cannot point the finger of blame at Mr. Malfoy purely because he visited the shop where this necklace might have been purchased. The same is probably true of hundreds of people-"

"-that's what I said-" muttered Ron.

"-and in any case, we have put stringent security measures in place this year. I do not believe that necklace can possibly have entered this school without our knowledge. And above all, Malfoy had been with me all day after he failed to complete his Transfiguration homework twice in a row now, he wasn't even in Hogsmeade."

Harry gaped at her, deflating.

"Regardless I thank you for telling me your suspicions, Potter." She said as she marched past them, and held her office door open. "But I will go Check Katie Bell's condition now. A good day to you all."

Harry was angry with the other two for siding with McGonagall, his theory may not have been water-proof but he simply had no doubt; Draco Malfoy was behind these deeds.

Did they not see this was all Malfoy's doing? How he himself was doing this for their own sake? What if he hadn't stopped Ron when he had reached out to pick it up? What if Hermione had been Imperiused to deliver the package? He didn't even want to think any further on the thoughts, as an uneasy feeling briefly shot through him.

Malfoy may not have been in Hogsmeade but that meant nothing; He must have used an accomplice then, Crabbe or Goyle or, another Death Eater.

The walk to the common room was silent, he was frustrated that they didn't support his theory; rebutted it even! Maybe it would be better if he also kept this to himself.

They could have been hurt today, besides; they won't believe his theory anyway…

* * *

It was past midnight, his vision was a dark whirlpool of visions and images flashing by, melting into a new ones as he tossed in his bed. A thousand voices buzzing through his head, incomprehensible and chaotic before they quieted down into a much more focused image and sound, which was however; much more horrible, as he suddenly stood in the Ministry again.

"Well done, Ha—"

She was cut off as the Death Eater Hermione had just struck down made a sudden recovery, making a slashing movement with his wand; a streak of what looked like purple flame passed right across Hermione's chest. She gave a tiny yelp as she crumpled on to the floor, where she lay motionless.

"HERMIONE!"

The scene blurred again, his head pounding before leaving him just as fast.

There were footsteps running along behind the doors, every now and then another heavy body would launch itself against one, so it creaked and shuddered; Luna and Neville were bewitching the doors along the opposite wall - then, as Harry reached the very top of the room, he heard Luna cry:

"Collo-"

He turned in time to see her flying through the air; five Death Eaters were surging into the room through the door she had not reached in time; Luna hit a desk, slid over its surface and on to the floor on the other side where she lay sprawled, blood seeping onto the cold hard floor in a small puddle, as still as Hermione.

Whirling sounds and images overtook his mind and vision again as the scene changed.

"RON, NO!"

Harry did not know what would happen if Ron touched the tentacles now flying behind the brain, but he was sure it would not be anything good. He darted forwards but Ron had already caught the brain in his outstretched hands, his mind completely confused from the spell of the previous Death Eater.

The moment they made contact with his skin, the tentacles began wrapping themselves around Ron's arms like ropes.

"Harry, look what's happen- No - no - I don't like it - no, stop - stop –"

But the thin ribbons were spinning around Ron's chest now; he tugged and tore at them as the brain was pulled tight against him like an octopus's body.

"Diffindo!" Yelled Harry, trying to sever the feelers wrapping themselves tightly around Ron before his eyes, but they would not break. Ron fell over, still weakly thrashing against his bonds.

"Harry, it'll suffocate him!" Screamed Ginny, immobilized by her broken ankle on the floor - then a jet of red light flew from one of the Death Eater's wands and hit her squarely in the face. She keeled over sideways and lay there, silent like Ron was now.

He was hurled away again, his head throbbing painfully again for a brief moment.

"Let's see how long Longbottom lasts before he cracks like his parents… unless Potter wants to give us the prophecy." Bellatrix said, smiled manically.

"DON'D GIB ID DO DEM!" roared Neville, his words sounding strange through his broken nose, who seemed beside himself, kicking and writhing as Bellatrix drew nearer to him and his captor, her wand raised. 'DON'D GIB ID DO DEM, HARRY!'

Bellatrix raised her wand. "Crucio."

Neville screamed, his legs drawn up to his chest so that the Death Eater holding him was momentarily holding him off the ground. The Death Eater dropped him and he fell to the floor, twitching and screaming in agony as Bellatrix continued to hold her Curse.

The scene changed, making him clutch his head and wonder how long this would continue and how much he could take.

He saw Sirius again.

It seemed to take Sirius an age to fall; his body curved in a graceful arc as he sank backwards through the ragged veil hanging from the arch.

Harry saw the look of mingled fear and surprise on his godfather's wasted, once-handsome face as he fell through the ancient doorway and disappeared behind the veil, which fluttered for a moment as though in a high wind, then fell back into place.

Harry heard Bellatrix Lestrange's triumphant scream, but knew it meant nothing, Sirius had only just fallen through the archway, he would reappear from the other side any second…

But Sirius did not reappear.

"SIRIUS!" Harry yelled. "SIRIUS!"

He finally awoke, gasping, wet all over his body from sweat, his head was having a painful headache, depriving his exhausted mind of a break. He thanked the heavens, Merlin, anyone or anything for allowing him to awaken from his nightmare, but cursed them all the same for giving it in the first place.

He rolled to his side, wet hair on his head clinging to his face, allowing his back some coolness. He suppressing a groan of pain at his headache. Balling his fists painfully hard, his nails digging into his palm as he heard Lupin's words echo throughout his head over and over again.

"There's nothing you can do, Harry… nothing… he's gone."

* * *

**As always i hope that you will share your thoughts and enjoyed reading!**


	6. Serious and Sirius

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter Universe and all the characters belong to J.K. Rowling.

* * *

**Special thanks to Yuigfhf for beta-ing this chapter and removing obvious grammar mistakes!**

* * *

Rumors had already spread inside Hogwarts the following day of the incident with Katie bell, the other witnesses having undoubtedly talked to their fellow students, eager to tell them of the scary and bizarre events they saw. Daphne and Tracey were currently working on their essay for Herbology in the library, the assignment asking for information on how the Dragon's Bane will change and evolve in its later stages.

"Oh, Merlin. You can't be serious." Was all Daphne said staring at her Herbology book in horror.

"And your right Daphne! I'm just Tracey." Tracey responded unable to resist another lame pun.

"No, really. Have you not read about the Dragon's Bane yet? Daphne asked but was already pretty sure the answer was no, otherwise Tracey never would have been able to keep quiet about it.

"Hm? What is it then? Will it start puking slugs?" Tracey asked airily, putting her chin in her hand, resting her elbow on the table.

"Worse, listen to this: 'In later stages, the flower on the plant will start to change colour to midnight blue, indicating that the Dragon's Bane nears his maturity, soon after will it's properties for truth-serums make itself known by occasionally exhaling it's fumes. Take note that these fumes when directly inhaled; have the effect of lesser truth-serums for a few seconds, inducing acts of unrestrained honesty.'"

Tracey immediately caught on and started to make a mixture of coughing and laughing sounds at the same time, wanting to cover up her laughter in fear of Madam Pince hearing them.

"S-so during the l-lessons people might start blurting funny stuff out? _True_ stuff?" she continued, laughing throughout her question.

"I don't see how this is going to be any fun, it will be pure chaos, everyone blurting out embarrassing things. _We_ will also be doing the same, I don't fancy doing that while fighting a monstrous plant, Tracey." Daphne said an incredulous look on her face at Tracey's reaction, although it was to be expected.

"Ah, Don't sweat the small stuff Daphne. I can't wait to see what kind of shades Weasley might get! He will surely reach colours never touched upon before by mankind." Tracey said, throwing her hands in the air, proclaiming a grand spectacle.

Daphne could only hang her head a little, just hopeless this girl.

"Besides who knows, maybe Potter might blurt some secrets out himself. Something you want to know more about right?" Tracey asked turning a little bit more serious.

"I guess you're right, but then maybe not." Daphne said, frowning.

"Oh? Why not then?" She said, leaning forward a little, looking interested.

"Potter was capable of resisting the Imperius Curse from the Teacher in fourth year. Truth serums can also be resisted to some extent, depending on the quality of the potion and will of said person. Potter might show the same sort of resistance to the fumes. Besides I also think this only entails to positive acts and thoughts, these are only fumes, not full blown potions, they will help you say stuff you _wanted_ to say in the first place." Daphne explained, disappointed that it was probably the truth.

"Ah, I guess that explains why they say 'unrestrained honesty', it helps you get past your own embarrassment of saying it." Tracey replied, the meaning clear to her now.

Tracey soon grinned, her head lazily rolling to the side "I see, I guess you're screwed then Daphne. You'll be blurting out all your curiosities about Potter."

"No I won't! I'll be perfectly fine and completely immune, you just watch me." Daphne said, confident in herself.

"Can't wait to find out Daphne, when will the fumes come out?" Tracey asked eagerly.

"I'm not sure, weeks? Months? It will in any case still be quite some time away. _Luckily_." Daphne said putting emphasis on the last word.

"Guess you'll never find out about Potter then, unless we're going to stalk him again." Tracey said, casting an accusing glance at her.

"It was merely coincidence Tracey, nothing more." She said easily brushing the guilt-inducing glance off.

She said those things but she was truly getting interested in Harry Potter, their little adventure in Hogsmeade only spiking curiosity that had begun to grew after multiple Potions and Herbology lessons with Potter, he seemed calm and kind, gave little personal information about himself during their lessons. Although she was the same in that regard, so she couldn't really complain there.

She had mostly moved in the masses during the previous years, only hearing rumors about his supposed showdown with a basilisk, encounter with a hundred dementors, and battles in the triwizard tournament. At the time she didn't know what to think of him, she only heard bad things from Malfoy about his attention seeking ego, and read articles about him being deranged in the Prophet.

She hadn't been convinced that all of it was true, as she only saw a teenager caught between a rock and a hard spot on those moments. Their now comically first encounter on the train and newly established partnership in lessons had given her at least some insight into him after nearly six weeks.

He had been civil with her from the start of their lessons and always listened closely whenever she gave him instructions and feedback during Potions, his green eyes fixated on her during these times, interested in her knowledge. Always quickly trying to correct his mistakes and making sure not to repeat them in their next brewing. His efforts were quite endearing.

During Herbology he always went for the vines, gaining cuts multiple times from the flailing appendages but always keeping silent, encouraging her that he had everything under control. Never showing annoyance at her fluent cursing, or failures to approach the flower.

Harry Potter was a good person, shrouded in many unknown secrets to her, being the gravity point of people around him without his own noticing.

"Hey, still here with me in the library Daphne? Or did you go somewhere else hmm?" Tracey called out to her wiggling her eyebrows.

"Just lesson reminiscences. Remember me to practice the Protego Charm again soon. Mine was pretty bad at the last DADA." She offhandedly said, pulling herself from her thoughts.

"Yeah sure." Tracey answered unbelievingly. "Weren't you rather thinking about your teamwork with Potter during said lessons? I can see that you're getting a bit chummy. Although I must say that I'm quite jealous of you there. Having a responsive partner would be nice." Tracey said, her grin back in place.

"Pure neutrality, Tracey, I assure you. And since we're on that topic: I've seen Weasley look less red each lesson, are things getter better?" Daphne asked, wanting to turn the attention away from her, and thinking about Tracey's partnership in return.

"It's coming along you know, slowly but surely he gets a bit more civil each lesson. He even managed greet me last time!" Tracey said, nodding at her, as if needing to convince her that it had actually happened. Which might be true.

Daphne winced, feeling sorry for Tracey. "I hope you come out of this okay, a lesson doesn't go by with your potion being vanished."

Tracey shrugged "I already asked Professor Slughorn, he said that successful teamwork will result in extra marks but otherwise won't affect our scores. I'll just have to make sure I get it down right on the exams."

"That's some good news at least then. Still I hope he manages to get civil soon." Daphne said remembering the glare she received when handing Potter the note from Dumbledore.

What business did Potter and the headmaster have anyway?

* * *

Harry knocked on the doors leading to the Headmaster's office, "Come in." Said a voice from inside, a bit muffled by the door.

There sat Dumbledore looking a bit tired, but he smiled when he gestured to Harry to sit down. The Pensieve was sitting on the desk again, casting silvery specks of light over the ceiling.

On his desk also stood the case made of glass, Inside rested a crudely crafted golden ring; Gaunt's ring, looking the same as last time he saw it. He had felt the dark enchantments on the ring the moment he had entered the office, beckoning him closer, radiating feelings of longing and affection.

The distracting feelings probably didn't bother the headmaster, the effect being negated by a mage of Dumbledore's caliber, he reasoned.

"Haven't gotten to destroying the Cursed object yet, Sir?" He asked, idly wondering how Dumbledore hadn't found means to destroying it yet.

"Oh no, I'm afraid not. Soon however, it will be nothing but broken jewelry, but then again, I also said that last time." The Headmaster replied, chuckling a bit.

"Now, you have had a busy time while I have been away," Dumbledore said, becoming more serious. "I believe you also witnessed Katie's accident."

"Yes, sir. How is she?"

"Still very unwell, although she was relatively lucky. She appears to have brushed the necklace with the smallest possible amount of skin; there was a tiny hole in her glove. Had she put it on, had she even held it in her ungloved hand, she would have died, perhaps instantly. Luckily Professor Snape was able to do enough to prevent a rapid spread of the curse-"

"Why him?" asked Harry quickly. "Why not Madam Pomfrey?"

"Professor Snape knows much more about the Dark Arts than Madam Pomfrey, Harry. Anyway, the St. Mungo's staff are sending me hourly reports, and I am hopeful that Katie will make a full recovery in time."

"Where were you the past weeks, sir?" Harry asked, hoping for the feeble chance that Dumbledore might tell him.

"I would rather not say just now, however, I shall tell you in due time." Said Dumbledore, confirming Harry's disappointment before withdrawing a fresh bottle of silver memories from inside his robes and uncorking it with a prod of his wand.

Harry continued despite this, he had more important questions, quite a lot of them.

"Sir," said Harry tentatively, "I met Mundungus in Hogsmeade."

"Ah yes, I am already aware that Mundungus has been treating your inheritance with light-fingered contempt," said Dumbledore, frowning a little. "He has gone underground since you confronted him outside the Three Broomsticks; I think he dreads facing the consequences. However, rest assured that he will not be making away with any more of Sirius's old possessions, he has been prohibited from entering the house again."

"And the items he has taken? They will be forever lost?" Harry asked wanting justice and everything that had belonged to Sirius returned to their rightful place, even if Sirius hated all of it. He wanted it for the small favor and honor he could do for him.

"I fear so Harry, but remember that nothing is certain, who knows? They might find their way back to you again. Fate can be a funny thing sometimes, turning you at corners you never thought of crossing."

Harry sank back in the chair behind him, the Headmaster's cryptic words not really helping.

"Professor," said Harry, after a short pause, "did Professor McGonagall tell you what I told her after Katie got hurt? About Draco Malfoy?"

"She told me of your suspicions, yes," said Dumbledore.

"And do you-?"

"I shall take all appropriate measures to investigate anyone who might have had a hand in Katie's accident," said Dumbledore. "But what concerns me now, Harry, is our lesson."

'Anyone who might have a hand in this?' Dumbledore also didn't believe him then? Did anyone believe him nowadays? Harry felt resentful at this, sitting stiffly in his chair. However he said no more about Draco Malfoy, suppressing his feelings. I still have the whole evening left; I need to stay calm, stay calm, stay calm. He repeated in his head as a mantra while he watched as Dumbledore poured the fresh memories into the Pensieve and began swirling the stone basin with his wand.

"You will remember, I am sure, that we left the tale of Lord Voldemort's beginnings at the point where the handsome Muggle, Tom Riddle, had abandoned his witch wife, Merope, and returned to his family home in Little Hangleton. Merope was left alone in London, expecting the baby who would one day become Lord Voldemort."

"How do you know she was in London, sir?" Harry asked, his voice not entirely neutral.

"Because of the evidence of one Caractacus Burke," said Dumbledore, "who, by an odd coincidence, helped found the very shop whence came the necklace we have just been discussing."

"Now, into the memory we go Harry."

* * *

"I think that will do," said Dumbledore at Harry's side, and seconds later, they were soaring weightlessly through darkness once more, before landing squarely in the present day office.

"Sit down, Harry" said Dumbledore.

Harry obeyed, his mind still full of what he had just seen. He had learned how Merope sold one of Marvolo's treasured family heirlooms; Slytherin's locket, only to get a little gold for it, likely dying of starvation and depression afterwards, unwilling to continue her life and raise her son.

After becoming of age to go to Hogwarts Dumbledore came to Riddle, who had been sent to an orphanage where he used his already developing powers to frighten others.

Dumbledore informed young Riddle on the wizarding world and of its school of magic; Hogwarts, Riddle took little time to believe Dumbledore, already believing himself special and better than others, his manners far colder than any child should have been at his age. Already showing dislike for his common name and unwillingness to have someone accompany him to Diagon Alley.

Dumbledore continued explaining the memory to him, how he also noticed Riddle showing dislike of his name, leading to the image of Lord Voldemort and his tendency to experiment on people through acts of cruelty, secrecy, and domination, taking trophies of his acts from them.

"Now Harry, time is making fools of us again." Said Dumbledore, gesturing to the dark sky beyond the windows, indicating the end of the lesson.

But Harry wasn't ready to go yet; he had more questions besides the ones from taking these lessons. What did it matter that he learned all this? Harry didn't believe that physiological warfare was going to work on Voldemort, and he was sure that Dumbledore also knew, there was another reason, that was related to his theory as he had told him earlier; in their first lesson. A reason he felt himself closing in on.

"Sir," he began, pausing, knowing he would be giving away part of his own secrecy now. "I have been researching the matter of Voldemort being able to return to physical bodies, the same matter I have laid before you last time we spoke here."

"I am growing confident that it is the same as yours, the method being 'soul anchoring' a seemingly horrible way of ripping one's soul apart and binding it to earth." He said, leaning forward in his chair as Dumbledore sank back in his own.

"You have been doing your homework then Harry, I see." Dumbledore said, his eyes seeming to dim.

"I do hope that you are not pushing yourself too hard Harry, I must say that you look a bit fatigued." Dumbledore said. looking tired himself as he spoke.

"I'm fine as long as I get answers, Sir." Harry replied, not sure if Dumbledore meant it or was trying to steer them away from the subject.

"I have been looking for some time now, but information has nearly run out with no clear answer in sight, I was _hoping_ that you could share yours on the subject." He said fixating his gaze on Dumbledore's own blue.

"What more information is there to the anchoring? What deeds must be done for someone to rip their own soul?" Harry began.

Dumbledore was silent for a moment, contemplating before answering him. "Murder Harry, it requires murder."

Harry was briefly surprised that he had gotten an answer at all before continuing, there was more to it than that. "In what way? It's not like anyone can use anchoring like this right?"

"You are correct, Harry… hardly anyone will meet the demands of the act, for it asks no sympathy, empathy or any remorseful emotion during the act. It needs to be done in such a inhumane way to ensure that the soul, a human soul; normally not capable of such an act is punished by its own magic; ripping and scarring the soul." Dumbledore explained, having decided to answer his question.

Harry absorbed the information, finally hearing information he had been searching for, keeping completely silent during the explanation, afraid that any sound might break the spell.

Still he had to break the silence that now hangs, as Dumbledore had stopped speaking. "Sir, their destruction, how are they destroyed? Is it possible to destroy such a thing as someone's soul in the first place, seeing as they are corporeal?

"It is possible to destroy them Harry, the methods however are largely unknown." Answered Dumbledore.

"Then what _is_ known about destroying them?" He questioned again, fascinated by what he had heard before.

"That destruction is difficult, but not impossible, and requires that the receptacle to be damaged completely beyond physical or magical repair."

"What kinds of methods are destructive enough then?" Harry asked, pressing on.

"I cannot say for sure Harry, likely the most dangerous and potent spells, venoms and weapons. Although I do not know which exactly." Dumbledore vaguely told him, his voice reluctant.

"And the soul itself, how are we capable of attacking it with magical and physical means? Magical I can understand, but using physical methods on the soul?" He asked, changing questions on the subject, and expressing his lack of clarity at the Headmaster's answers.

"I have my suspicions but wish not to indulge in them yet with you." Dumbledore said, completely stopping.

"Why not? It doesn't matter whether or not you know for sure." Harry tried convincing him.

"We will discuss it when we have confirmed it through the memories." Dumbledore said with a voice of finality.

"How-" Harry began again.

"Harry… I will not share the information, not yet." Dumbledore interrupted, his voice serious.

Harry could feel his lips get set in a tight line, and his jaw harden. "Fine. Good night, Sir" He ground out. This wasn't the end of it, far from it, but for now he would gather all his patience and wait for next time he got an opportunity.

He had at least learned something and was going to see what he could do with the new information until then.

He stood up and moved towards the doors leading out of the Headmaster's office, but heard Dumbledore speak up when he had his hand on the door.

"Harry, one last thing before you go please."

"Yes, Professor? Harry asked from the door, his back facing Dumbledore.

"Harry, I do not wish to see you leave frustrated and angry like this. Allow me to speak a few words that have been dwelling aimlessly in my aged mind until now." Dumbledore spoke to Harry's back.

"I've seen you deal with your current situation and problems for some time now Harry, a situation I've placed you in and problems I've given to you. I can tell you that where others might have given up, you continue onwards, despite everything placed upon you.

"I want to tell you that i'm impressed by your will and perseverance, but know that it is equally strong to show your weaknesses from time to time, keeping your emotions locked up will do you no good Harry. Even the sweetest fruit can fester and rot when left unattended."Dumbledore said to him, his face likely smiling in the faint darkness of the office.

Harry swallowed, his grip on the door handle tightening, suddenly finding the craftmanship on the door very intriguing.

"I know that Sirius's death is hard for you Harry." Dumbledore spoke in an understanding tone, no pity but experience sounding through his voice.

He turned around again to face Dumbledore before speaking. "Sir...Have you ever lost someone... important to you?" Harry asked slowly, trying to keep his voice steady.

Dumbledore was silent for another moment, making Harry wonder whether or not he had asked one question too many for tonight. The Headmaster however, spoke again.

"I have Harry. It had been a mistake on my own part, and i live with the regrets of my decisions to this day." Dumbledore spoke solemnly, his face regretful and body sinking.

"I am to blame for this. I had made my choices for my own good and wellbeing, much unlike you did for Sirius, Harry. You were lured and deceived on multiple fronts, rushing in to save Sirius, disregarding your own safety."Dumbledore said.

Harry opened his mouth wanting to tell Dumbledore that it had only ended in disaster, disaster he had caused. But his voice didn't come out when he wanted it to, having no control of his vocal cords and only managing to produce silent words. The moment passed and Dumbledore continued.

"Few people have qualities like those Harry, including me. Please allow this old man to speak for others by saying that Sirius would have been proud of you." Dumbledore said to him, his eyes twinkling in what could be described as pride, and care that went above a normal teacher's.

Harry let out a breath that quivered a bit. His nightmare of the Ministry still fresh on his mind, would Sirius really have been proud of him? At the very least he wanted to think like that. Sirius being proud and happy of him would take a lot of the burden from him, would he really not be mad at him, even if Harry had blame in his death?

"It was cruel for you to lose him so fast after having just met him. Sirius represented much to you that you had never known before." Dumbledore said, honesty in his voice.

Harry said nothing, just standing there as memories of Sirius passed through him: his roaring laughter, doggish grin, funny jokes, and parental advice. Sirius had been exactly that above all; a parental figures, giving his opinion on various matters, whether that was relating to him with his outcast upbringing, or supporting and reprimanding him for his behaviour. It wasn't fair that Sirius had been ripped away from him, out of his life and into oblivion; Sirius had been stolen from him.

"Now... good night Harry, come and see me when you feel the need." said Dumbledore gently.

Harry nodded, before gathering his will again, pushing the feelings of grief and guilt down. "Yes, he did mean a lot, Professor… and good night" He replied softly, closing the door behind him, wanting to leave it at that.

* * *

It was morning again and out of the top windows in the great hall, owls came flying through to delivering newspapers and letters.

Nerves welled up inside her stomach as she saw her family owl descend to her, Tracey's owl also heading downwards to her respectively.

Their owls landed, managing to avoid knocking over anything on the table as they held out their feet, letters attached to them. Daphne quickly reached over the table to give both owls some bacon before detaching the wrapped papers, quickly handing Tracey her own letter, their owl's flying away to the Owlery after haven done their jobs.

She began ripping it open, Tracey mirroring her, quickly scanned through the letter, the contents neither comforting nor very alarming. "Fuck." Daphne hissed softly, cursing anyway.

Death Eaters had visited her house again, conversing with her parents about the same things. The exact words hidden in their discussions, but nonetheless there, namely, about them pledging their allegiance and joining the Dark Lord, offering empty promises of wealth and prosperity for their services.

They wrote her that it had ended the same as usual, dodging answers and forestalling decisions on their part, keeping vague on their opinions and thoughts. But they all knew what side they would be joining as staying neutral was no choice this time. They would be joining Dumbledore, for the first time in their family line joining the Light side.

She felt better with this decision, joining the side that wanted to keep the peace and freedom as it was before the Dark lord's return, instead of joining the side that annihilated any opposition, and oppressed others for their background and upbringing.

She turned to Tracey, seeing that things had stayed the same for her too at home, as she nodded and smiled slightly.

They returned to their breakfast silently, feeling a bit down and still in contemplation.

She soon willed her thoughts to something else, to distract her from the mood dampener. Something. Anything.

Her eyes began gliding towards the Gryffindor table, searching for him between the masses before spotting his messy black hair, sitting opposite from her between Weasley and Granger. Who were, by the looks of it; bickering again about nothing in particular, their mouths opening and closing rapidly, but they didn't interest her much at the moment.

Potter sat between them, a bit hunched, offering few words in between their verbal warfare, taking slow bites out of his breakfast, distracted. The posture made him look a bit tired. Granger seemed to also take notice but said nothing to him, seemingly holding back her worries and questions, returning focus back soon enough on Weasley.

Their encounter in Hogsmeade, or rather, unknown encounter, still hadn't left her mind. She was curious as to what he had really done in their previous school years, who this Sirius really was, and what he seemed to tire himself with.

But then again, maybe I'm just overthinking things; maybe he just has a lot of homework to catch up on, and is this Sirius business nothing like she and Tracey thought it might be.

Still... She was a bit curious, just a bit. Maybe she should watch him a bit more, no harm done there right?

* * *

A few days had passed after Harry had his last memory lesson. They were currently walking through the halls on their way to the common room, having just come out of DADA with Snape, the lesson itself hadn't been that bad. Snape had obviously tried to make him look stupid by asking him the differences between inferi and ghosts, expecting him to fail. Harry however, perfectly and calmly explained it as if he had done weeks of research on the nature of ghosts and the state of undead. Making Snape, look like he swallowed something extremely sour before he abruptly turned on his heel and began gliding away.

He was also doing a little bit better in other magic classes, probably duo to his own practice sessions. Allowing him to gain more efficiency in picking up spells and understanding them better.

He had also returned to the library with the little information he gained from Dumbledore. However there wasn't much to go by in the first place, only haven gotten one whole, a half and an abundance of deflected answers during his lesson. Books with any information had already run low before he had visited the Headmaster; now his questions were more specified, only serving to narrow down any information that was available.

Still he would continue trying, he just had this itching feeling that he was one step away from his conclusion, from his clarity of knowing what was going on and allowing him in on Dumbledore's full theory. He had to do it this way, find the information himself and push Dumbledore for explanations. The headmaster wasn't planning on telling him anytime soon, or at all for that matter, Harry could only dig it out from underneath him.

They rounded the corner and all thoughts stopped as alarms sounds went off in his head, there at the end of the hallway stood Slughorn, his round figure merilly skipping a beat upon seeing Harry.

"Nope, let's find another route!" Harry suddenly said, taking them by the arms and steering them in another hallway as he heard Slughorn call out to him with "Harry m'boy, let's have a talk!"

"Harry," Hermione began after steadying herself from his abrupt change in direction."You can't keep this up forever; it's rude towards Professor Slughorn. Besides his parties aren't that bad, the Professor has many intersting tales, and the food is also very good." She tried, making it sound better than it probably was.

"I'll rather pass hermione." He said, not wanting to think about Slughorn parading him around like his own personal house cup, telling boring stories of famous people he met during his lifetime.

"Well, Slughorn is preparing a Christmas party you know, and there is simply no way that he wont make you come to it. He'll adjust the date if he has to." Hermione said, warning him.

"Well, I'll happily enjoy my freedom untill then." he said, dismissively. He'll continue avoiding Slughorn as long as he could; maybe, just maybe he manages to stay out of it long enough. Then the party will pass and Slughorn might start considering leaving him alone for the remainder of his life.

"You're completely right Harry, stupid 'Slug Club' full of snobs." Ron said, becoming grumpy as usual at the mention of the club, he had really taken badly to being ignored by the Professor.

"I'll have you know that we're allowed to bring guests," said Hermione, snippely, "and I was going to ask you to come, but if you think it's that stupid and for snobs then I won't bother, since you would also become a snob by coming."

"You were going to ask me?" asked Ron, in a completely different voice.

"Yes," said Hermione softly.

There was a pause while Harry began to feel like he had the invisibility cloak on. Suddenly wishing he wasn't here with them in this strange atmosphere.

"I'm sorry, I'll come with you." said Ron, in a very quiet voice.

Hermione only nodded.

Harry coughed after seeing that the silence seemed to go nowhere, making his presence known again. Hermione looked flustered and immediately started looking at the portraits they passed. Ron, on the other hand, had a faraway look in his eyes.

It was not as though he was really surprised, thought Harry; he had had a feeling that this might happen sooner or later. But he was not sure how he felt about it. … What if Ron and Hermione started going out together, then split up? Could their friendship survive it? Where would he be in it? Would things stay the same, or would he become a bother? He could only wait and see, he thought as they walked in silence.

* * *

They sat in the common room, working on essays. Rather copying them from Hermione as this one was about their Transfiguration lesson, asking for the dangers of human transfiguration, which proved quite difficult to explain, but that might have been due to their lack of interest in the background information. They could search the information up again but it proved to be a bit late to do that now, with the deadline being tomorrow and all. Hermione would finish these things much quicker than that.

Ron and Harry had opted to start on their Herbology essay while Hermione helped them on Transfiguration. An efficient method for all three of them, since she wouldn't have to spend fifteen minutes scribbling all over their Acceptable level Transfiguration parchment.

Hermione, however was slow this evening, slow on a subject that only required pure knowledge. Her quill scribbed but went into pauze again after haven written down a few lines. This was strange in itself as she normally finished these things in nearly one straight line but she seemed distracted, her eyes occasionally staring at her parchment while she nibbled on her bottom lip, obviously in deep thought. She was likely thinking about something else other than their essay.

"Hermione." He said. calling out to her after this went on for a few minutes. "What's wrong?"

"Yeah, what's wrong? You usually finish these things without even blinking." added Ron also having noticed her odd behavior.

"Say, Harry..." Hermione began, pulling her head up from their essays to look him hesitantly in the eyes.

"Yes, Hermione?" he asked, softly urging her on, seeing her hesitation to continue her thoughts, which was rare for her.

"You been going away to practise for a long time now, I know that it isn't for the school lessons as you were doing great in them even before you started practicing. But you know… you look a bit tired, there is no need to push yourself. It's not like you're worried for your exams right? Those are still miles away, well I myself already started preparing but that doesn't mean anything of course!" Hermione fired off rapidly as her dam broke in one go, keeping silent as she waited for his answer.

He wasn't surprised by their curiosity; this moment would have come up eventually. He did feel a bit guilty for making them worry however.

Already having prepared his answer, he kept it simple and said: "I want to get a head start on my Auror training. Heard from Tonks and Moody that it's a hard schooling, might as well work on some things now to make it easier later." To which Ron made a nod of acknowledgement while Hermione smiled at him, slightly relieved at his answer before turning serious.

"That's great Harry, but don't push yourself okay? It's still some time away." She said.

"Says the witch who is already starting on exams at the start of the year." He said poking at her, returning her words.

She squirmed away from him, laughing. "Okay, okay stop! I won't say anymore!"

"Oi, Hermione, what the hell does this mean? Are they being serious here with this fumes stuff?" Ron asked, handing her his Herbology book, which looked quite strange on him, after she had quieted down from her laughter.

She leaned over to read the small article where he had pointed. Squinting her eyes from the distance before looking perplexed.

"Oh. Well... that'll be quite troublesome." Was all she said.

* * *

**Share your thoughts, loving it!**

**Chapter six done, Daphne is getting more involved as you probably noticed, and trust me I also want to throw her in there. And I will very soon, but i want to keep some pacing ofcourse.**

**HP-DG-SB-NR-AG-HA-TD-KB-RR-AJ: I'm happy to tell you that many of those literal events are behind us now. They had to be included as they were in canon to make for changes later on.**

**Guest from Feb 18: All i can say is that he doesn't really have a strong reason in particular to go there, the practise of magic in classrooms is not forbidden.**

**I also thank those for pointing out grammar mistakes. Mabye a Beta is possible when my story (hopefully) gets more popular.**

**Lastly i thank you for reading, hope that you enjoyed, and will continue to do so in the future.**


	7. Horror Hallway and Greengrass

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter Universe and all the characters belong to J.K. Rowling.

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**Special thanks to Yuigfhf for beta-ing this chapter and removing obvious grammar mistakes!**

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He had his hands on his knees, breathing hard from exhaustion, exhaustion from achieving nothing. He had spent 2 hours practicing again, other spells went brilliantly: the new cutting, feet freezer and older spells he had worked on perfecting, but he failed at the Bone-Breaker, it produced nothing!

He hadn't known that he would be so bad at the Darker spells. In his research he had lightly read through parts of their nature, how Darker categorized spells were labeled as such not only because of their strength and effect, but also through the nature of the magic.

It's Just like how the Patronus needs access to your positive emotions. In the same sense do Darker spells require an affinity with the caster's negative emotions.

It would push you into a certain direction but would still be a matter of your own choices and morality defining whether or not you were doing evil with the spells you use. The harmless Levitation Charm could be used to throw somebody of a tower to their deaths, resulting in a more brutal death than the Killing Curse would have done.

He knew he could do it, the Curse didn't ask too much of his magical reserves for he proved to have plenty after going at it for so long. He had done everything correctly, the preparation, the knowledge, the incantation, and the movements.

Curses required fuel to ignite into fire, emotions served as fuel here. But using his frustration didn't seem to make it work, as if it wasn't enough, not heartfelt enough.

Which might be true, he thought begrudgingly; he wanted to do it with a clear mind, stay leveled about his situation and course of actions. Otherwise he would be following _his _advice, Voldemort's advice from the time at the Ministry.

He tried again, the spell disintegrating into nothing halfway there. He tried again, and again. Soon he was gritting it through his teeth, other people knew this Curse, why couldn't he do it!

He fired the Curse again and pushed a sizable amount of magic through his wand, only to have it disappear midway to its destination midair, unable to hold itself together.

'_You have to mean it, Harry.'_

It whispered through his head, almost sounded more than just a thought, almost like a real voice. Guiding him in a firm and compelling tone.

He ignored it, tried again, and failed, swearing loudly. How was he going to achieve anything if all the spells he could do were either cutting Charms or weak spells!

They had seen it at the ministry, stunned and impaired Death Eaters would just be revived and Counter spelled. Letting them join back in after having just been dealt with, it had cost them injuries and nearly their lives.

He tried again, putting more of his anger behind the spell, bitterly acknowledging that it helped a little as his spell traveled further.

'_You have to mean it, Harry. You know the spell.'_

It sounded through his ears again, pressing and persuasive, the pillars in front of him slowly warping into blurry shapes as he raised his wand again, his vision was muddled and his head felt heavy. He wobbled on his feet, but managed to steady himself after a moment.

He stood for moment, staring at the stone floor as his view swam, surprised at the sudden wave of disorientation. Had he been using magic for too long? Was this some sort of magical overexertion?

His vision soon became a bit clearer and his surroundings returned to him. However a familiar and absolutely infuriating laughter sounded in his ears, making his blood boil and snap his head up.

"Ickle Potter can't do anything again? Weak as always, who is going to die next for you? I don't think that they will like that, Potty" It was almost like Bellatrix stood somewhere in the room, her shrieking voice taunting him again, echoing around him. His jaw tightened and nostrils flared, where was she!

"I'm sure that your friends will be able to say hello to dear Sirius again, very soon." She said in a baby cooing voice, he looked around wildly, her voice filling his ears but seeing no living being with him in the classroom.

"There is nothing ickle Potter can do, nothing at all!" She cackled insanely.

"Shut up, I'm not useless!" He shouted breathing hard from exhaustion and confusion.

"It's so amusing to see you try Potter, it will be even better to see you fail miserably in front of your dead friends. Maybe we'll let you go afterwards, hunt you again, and repeat the process!" She said in excitement, he could practically hear her heavy breathing as the words sounded around him.

'_You have to mean it, Harry. You know the spell. She killed him. She deserves it.'_

"Useless, useless, useless, useless, useless!" She chanted endlessly in a childish voice.

He snapped, he wasn't useless, and no one was going to die for him anymore! Releasing his rage, and roaring the incantation as it exploded from his wand, sending a tingle through his arm.

"OS FRACTIONIS!"

He blindly threw the Curse where he had last heard her voice, not caring in his state whether or not she was actually there. Feeling a pleasant tingle move through his arm before he fired his spell toward one of the pillars in the classroom. Letting it Impact against the pillar resulting in chunks the size of small bricks to break off from the pillar, and fall down nearby.

Harry took a moment to process what had transpired, before smiled in triumph, he had done it! He had successfully casted the Bone-breaking Curse!

But his feelings of success soon dimmed as he thought about how he had done it, it had definitely been out of anger. Was this how you learned Darker Curses? He felt reluctant but couldn't deny the power they contained as he looked at the pillar.

Not to mention that suddenly hearing the voice of Bellatrix in the empty classroom had been nothing normal, it must have been because of his exhaustion and emotions that spiked. Yes, he reasoned with himself. That was all there is to it.

_'Hearing voices no one else can hear isn't a good sign, even in the wizarding world.' Ron's words from second year echoed through him, but he paid no heed to them, this was an exception._

He gripped his wand tighter. It's just as Neville had said weeks before, sometimes we have a choice and sometimes we don't. In this case he didn't have one, he needed this strength, he didn't have the time to learn complicated spellwork like Dumbledore, if he even had the affinity for such Charms at all.

He continued his practice that evening, deciding that for tonight he would put more time into it, now that he had successfully cast the Curse.

Another hour passed and he was glad to note that as soon as he tried again, he didn't need to be in a state of rage again to cast his Bone-Breaking Curse, his initial accomplishment seemed to have opened some door for him, as if he had learned some kind of trick to make it possible.

He casted a quick tempus to read the time and saw that it was well past curfew now, he hadn't brought his cloak with him, having expected to be back in the common room before said curfew went in. Stupid.

He poked his head out of the classroom into the deserted hallway, maybe I'll be lucky and come across Ron and Hermione on their patrol, they could help sneak me back into the common room. He thought before slipping out of the classroom and quietly started stalking through the hallway, being soundless and sticking to the shadows as much as possible.

He exited another pair of stairs and waited for a few seconds to concentrate and listen for the sound of footsteps from anyone else echoing through the hallways. He heard none and continued prowling.

However, he heard them when he rounded another corner, faint footsteps and mumbling, it was a prefect judging by the slouched pace and sour muttering from the distance.

He quickly moved behind a suit of armor, being careful to hurry while staying soundless at the same time, the corner was dark and cramped, not to mention that the suit was also quite spiked. The footsteps soon grew louder and he could hear what the prefect said when he passed by.

"Become a prefect they said, you'll love it they said. Man this sucks, I still have homework you know." Harry didn't recognize the voice, but guessed he had probably been from either Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw. Slytherins would know what they were getting themselves into.

He waited until the prefect had disappeared from sight before moving out of the pitch-black shadow the armor offered. Continuing his way silently.

He was likely halfway on his journey when he noticed an eerie silence. It had been silent this whole time now but it had suddenly turned different.

He couldn't explain it but it felt completely wrong, the silence was forced, unnatural, foreboding.

He began wishing that he came across a teacher or prefect again as he waited, hoping for_ anything_ to break the illusion as he stood completely still in the dead silence of the dark hallway.

No sound from outside seemed to enter anymore, the large windows would normally let the damped howling from the wind outside pass through them; but the silence held itself in place.

That was until he heard the faintest of sounds coming through the halls, no indication on which direction it was coming from.

It was a muffled moaning sounding far into the distance but he jolted into motion as the few remaining candles in the corridor whisked out, leaving only the faint moonlight to illuminate the halls.

His instincts were screaming at him to get away as far, and fast as he possibly could. His heart was beginning to pound in his chest.

And so he did, always having strongly believed in what his gut was telling him, his hurried pace causing more sound than he was currently caring for.

The muffled moaning became louder and harry could now identify it as a male voice. He quickened his pace, the heartbeat in his ears sounding louder to him than his footsteps.

The voice was quickly gaining on him as it's hoarse screaming began to fill the corridor at an alarming speed, increasing in volume, the sounds seemingly coming off from the walls around him as they were everywhere around him.

He broke into a sprint at this point not caring whether or not his footsteps were thundering in the empty dark hallways.

The screaming was right behind him, he was rushing through hallways and jumping down stairs in a sprint for his life, his feet and knees were hurting from the long falls, smashing down into the ground to gain more speed.

He stumbled after jumping down from another flight of stairs, casting a quick glance behind him after getting back up.

The last thing he saw was a dark cloud of black flame and smoke crashing into him, wrathful screams mixing with his own.

* * *

"Wake up Potter, I don't have all night." An unfriendly and bored voice said to him.

Something ice cold washed over him, his eyes snapped open from the unpleasant feeling and he spluttered awake.

His vision was filled with a black-cloaked figure, towering over him with his wand still pointed at him.

Harry realized through the water drops on his glasses that it was Snape who stood over him, having apparently doused him with water. Snape was looking at him strangely, as if trying to determine he was either a complete idiot or something very strange altogether.

"Potter, care to explain why I found you unconscious in the hallway? Well past curfew on top of that?" He asked in a monotone voice.

"Hallway… unconscious?" He muttered, still disoriented. Slowly coming to a sitting position. Why had he been lying on the floor?

"Yes Potter, use your brain if you're capable of it and answer the question. Why were you lying on the floor?" Snape pressed with a sneer.

Harry slowly rose to his feet, memories coming back as he did. The suddenly haunting atmosphere, screaming voice, and hunt through the castle. Had it been real? It felt so surreal and distant now; maybe it had just been another voice, taking form at the last moment from his state of panic, an illusion, after effects from his overexertion.

"I was practicing spells in a classroom. I forgot the time and fell down from exhaustion on the way back to the common room, Sir." He said giving a decent lie despite his state of confusion; it rolled off his tongue quite easily.

Snape looked at him for a moment, not believing him. "Doesn't change the fact that you were out past curfew. Fifty points from Gryffindor and detention Potter, maybe it will help you remember curfew times in the future. I'll notify you on the details of your detention later." He said, turning on his heel.

"Come with me Potter, I will have to make sure you actually manage to reach the dorms this time. I guess even the 'Chosen one' needs help sometimes." Snape taunted as Harry silently followed him to the Gryffindor tower, casting a drying Charm on his hair as he went.

"Stop sneaking around the castle past curfew Potter, we have better things to do than babysit you." Snape continued.

"Of course Professor, it won't happen again" Harry responded.

"Don't make me catch you again next time." Snape said warningly, as they neared their destination.

"Oh, you won't...Professor." Harry said coolly, inwardly irritated at having to serve detention. Rather wanting to spend his time on something useful.

Snape glared at him out of the corner of his eyes for his implied meaning. "Watch your words Potter, arrogance is leading your tongue like it did with your father."

Harry could only clench his fists and hold his retort back at the untrustworthy spy. Someone so obsessed and bitter over his own past had to right to speak about his father like that. He only glared back at Snape.

He stopped just before they began ascending the last pair of stairs to the portrait hole, hearing a calming song approach them.

Through the hallways glided Fawkes, Dumbledore's Phoenix, towards them.

It swept through the hallway, in a fast pace despite only flapping his wings a few times, little embers trailing behind him as he soared towards them.

Harry made no move to continue up the stairs, wondering why Dumbledore's Phoenix was here. Snape was also fixated on the bird.

Fawkes spread its wing when he closed in on them, grinding himself to halt midair.

Snape gained a look of full alert at the Phoenix who now hovered in front of them, seeing a small crumbled note being clutched in its talon. He quickly held his hand out so that Fawkes dropped the note into his waiting hand before he began unfurling it, reading the contents hurriedly.

Snape became aware of his presence again afterwards for he snapped impatiently. "What are you waiting for Potter? Get to your dorm!" Snape didn't linger any second longer and seemed to be actually running in a slight panic.

Harry was sorely tempted to follow him. But realized that he would be seen, and getting his invisibility cloak would take too long at Snape's pace through the castle, he would be long gone by then.

He however could verify one thing; where Snape was going, maybe he still had a chance to follow him then.

He flew up the stairs, went through the portrait, and entered the dorms in a silent but hurried pace. He took out his map from under his bed and whispered. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

The blank parchment soon revealed the hallways and corridors of the castle, a majority of dots stacked close to each other; sleeping people, and few dots moving through the castle; Prefects and Teachers.

He scanned the parchment before settling his eyes on the Headmaster's office; Snape was in the office right next to Dumbledore's dot. Harry would be unable to follow them there, but it had been like he had suspected; the note was from Dumbledore, calling Snape to him, the reason dire; judging by Snape's reaction.

He put the map away, unable to do more, and slid into his bed. Mulling over his worries as he closed his eyes.

Sleep slowly claimed him, his dreams being mangled into incomprehensible fragments every time they started.

* * *

His was abruptly awakened when his cheek was slapped multiple times, none too gently as he heard Ron's voice. "Wake up, Harry, I already gave you a warning last time!"

Harry grumbled, having nearly lashed out himself, thinking someone or something was attacking him. He fumbled for his glasses and put them back on his face, he could really use some kind of alarm. Being slapped awake wasn't the best start of the day you could have.

He moved out of his bed, and started dressing, feeling the same tiredness as usual, he hadn't come back that late, earlier than he normally did actually because he had skipped a night of looking up information. The Curse training and nightmarish pursuit had probably been more exhausting for him than those late hours in the Restricted Section.

He didn't know what to think of the events that had transpired, it had felt very real but being awakened by Snape and haven gotten a night's rest, made it feel distant and vague. He didn't feel any different, no headache, pain or any other indication.

It made him doubt whether or not it had actually been real in the first place.

"Breakfast and Transfiguration, right?" he asked Ron who had finished dressing.

"Yeah, come on lets go, I'm starving!" Ron said immediately after seeing that he had also finished.

They moved downstairs and met Hermione in the common room, who had been waiting for them, as usual.

"Morning." She greeted upon seeing them. "Ready to go?"

"Yeah, those sausages won't know what hit 'em! Oh and morning." Ron exclaimed, motivated and excited; for all the wrong reasons.

"Morning, Hermione." He said as she rolled his eyes at Ron before following them outside the portrait.

They sat down on the Gryffindor table, Ron already grabbing around them for the thick, and heavy sausages, loading them on his plate. The heavy smell alone making them feel stuffed.

Hermione grabbed some toasts. "Listen, I helped you guys out last week with Transfiguration, but next time you'll start earlier okay?" she said, looking mostly at Ron.

"ure, tanks ermion!" Ron said with a fully loaded mouth, probably thanking her.

"Er, yes, thanks Hermione." Harry said, thanking her properly, grabbing some toast himself.

"Good, because we will likely get another essay after today's Transfiguration lesson, don't let it build up by procrastinating too long." She said, advising them.

Ron already looked reluctant at the thought of immediately starting on their homework and distracted himself with more food.

"I guess your right Hermione, I also slacked with the Transfiguration there." He admitted, his practice and research haven gotten priority before the essay.

Now that he thought about it, he needed to find more spells soon, he could still spend a bit of time with honing the Bone-Breaking but other than that he had nothing to work on currently.

"Guys, Gryffindor lost fifty points since yesterday." Hermione sharply noted as she looked at the hourglass, which had lost points through Harry being discovered out late by Snape.

"Yeah that was me, I came across Snape in the hallways after curfew. Got detention and lost those points." He said omitting much of the night.

"Oh, so that's why you came back late yesterday. You normally return before curfew, thought that something along the same lines had happened to you." Ron said, thankfully already having finished breakfast and talking with an emptied mouth.

"How so, Harry? I assumed you were planning to practice longer and had taken the invisibility cloak with you." Hermione questioned him, frowning a bit at his answer.

"Simply lost track of time, it was past curfew before I knew it. Although I learned my lesson, I'll take my invisibility cloak with me from now on, in case something like this happens again." He explained, truthfully.

"You really managed to get off track then harry, it was well past curfew when you returned. Nothing else happened?" Ron asked, questioning the late time of his return to the dorms.

"Time flies by you know? That's what I learned yesterday." He said offhandedly, smiling a bit.

"You sure Harry?" Hermione asked him, not entirely convinced, frowning a bit in thought.

"Yeah, what else could have happened?" He questioned back at them rhetorically, feeling guilty for withholding it, but what was he to tell them? That he had heard the voice of Bellatrix taunting him? That some sort of wraith had attacked him?

He pushed his plate away and stood when they couldn't think of anything.

"Let's get to Transfiguration then?"

He didn't want his only friends to start believing him delusional. He was fine, he could handle this.

* * *

Potions arrived again and Harry let out a big sigh, making Hermione look knowingly at him. Soon the enthusiastic Professor would make his presence known again by bursting into the scene.

Harry sometimes wondering if Slughorn was delusional himself, and was seeing a giant sack of Galleons instead of him. He didn't hate the man but simply found it…uncomfortable. He would jump him and Greengrass every lesson, nearly speaking in poetic versus as he expressed his delight at their success.

"Good afternoon, Treacle tarts! Let's get started shall we?" Slughorn cheerfully greeted them, some of the Slytherins looking quite incredulous when he called them a food article.

He swung his door open and let them inside, leaving them to join tables with their partners. Which went naturally for them now, having done this routine many times before.

He also moved towards the table they always had, already seeing her standing ready after moving past a few people.

"Hello Greengrass." He said, greeting her as usual, coming to stand next to her behind the table.

"Good afternoon, Potter" She greeted back, smiling slightly, her eyes looking energetic as they shifted up to him from her empty table.

Greengrass had been a great partner, probably the best regarding both personality and knowledge. He didn't even want to think about being paired up with Malfoy. Poor Neville. He had long since abandoned any prejudice against her for being in Slytherin. She was a playful but private person, privacy he paid respect to and playfulness he found enjoyable.

The past few weeks she seemed to have become quite content, happy even during their lessons. Sometimes casting curious and inquisitive looks at him whenever he told her something, as if he was a Rubik's Cube she had to solve using her eyes and mind only. He wasn't sure what to make of it.

It made him feel naked sometimes quite frankly…as if no lie; no matter how smoothly told and well thought out, could stop her from seeing through them.

"Now that you are all positioned and ready, The Love Potion Antidote will be brewed today! It is of course a potion that cures the symptoms of the Love Potion. However if you find yourself in a pinch then an alternative to use is The Hate Potion, which also serves to negate the effect of a Love Potion and vice versa. It's sometimes better to hate than to love I guess." Slughorn said, introducing the potion to them.

"Instructions are on the board, ingredients in the cabinets and wits inside your head, I wish you good luck!" Slughorn called out as he waved his wand to reveal the instructions.

Harry already knew his job and went to collect ingredients, hearing Greengrass set up their table and cauldron in the meantime.

Greengrass was a bit of a perfectionist when it came to potions, she always arranged ingredients and tools in order and size, he sometimes switched things up when she looked away for the fun of it, earning him looks that were amused and exasperated at the same time when she had picked up the wrong tool.

He returned to their table, putting down the ingredients at the predetermined spot.

"Your Ingredients, Miss Greengrass" He said, feeling like a waiter.

"Good, just as ordered. Now tell me Potter, what should we do first?" She asked him, hinting at nothing and looking expectantly at him.

She had done the same in their previous potion lessons, wanting to hear his thoughts and suggestions on what would be better to do. Guiding him to trust his gut instead of blindly following the instructions, making him look for the best course of action. Sometimes she herself had no major improvements to make, other times the recipe was completely rearranged from top to bottom.

He looked at the instructions again, thinking hard about how the instructions could do better.

"For the first step, we could crush the four Wiggentree twigs instead of snapping them. The juice would be stronger this way right?" Harry suggested.

"Yes, it would allow the juice of the roots to come out better, but the small amounts of bark itself are also needed in the potion, otherwise they would have instructed to simply extract the juice, like with the Gurdyroot later on. Besides the instructions tell us to add the four twigs or until it turns green, extracting the sap might cause an overdose at the beginning, acting detrimental for the potion." Greengrass explained to him, beginning on the first step of the potion.

"Gotcha." He said, indicating that he understood. Potions seemed to be a lot about using common sense and knowing the properties of ingredients.

"Start preparing the Castor oil will you?" She asked as she added twigs into the cauldron until it began turning green as per instructions.

"Next step Potter." Greengrass asked him again as she stirred the cauldron.

"Instructions say to stir until it turns orange, and add the Castor oil until the potion turns blue, followed by stirring to a purple colour." He paused for a moment, thinking quick as the potion was already becoming orange-ish.

"I guess we follow the instructions here?" He said unsure on what to do.

"Sorry, wrong again. We will stir until it becomes a more wine red colour, after which we add the Castor oil; we stir faster after doing so, allowing the potion to undergo a quicker transition from its red to purple colour. Watch the colours, they tell us about the reactions." Greengrass told him, her face telling him she was enjoying this.

"Now, add the Castor oil."

He looked back to see that the potion was a deep red colour, he quickly opened the cork of the oil bottle and slowly poured it in, seeing her ladle speed up and watched as their potion quickly turned purple.

"For now we will follow instructions again. There is however one improvement we can make here. Later on they ask us to add Gurdyroot extract, got an idea on what could help?" She asked in a suggestive voice, clearly referring to his earlier answer.

"Oh geez, I guess we could crush them for the juice, right?" Harry answered feigning surprise.

"Correct, Potter, I see that my brilliant teaching is paying off, only natural of course." She said, grinning at him as she complimented herself.

"Now quickly get to it then, we are already behind schedule, show me your manliness and demolish those roots." Greengrass continued.

He shook his head at her as he began to crush the Gurdyroot in a bowl. He soon had collected a hefty amount of juice, and poured it into the cauldron, being careful to stop the remains of the roots from falling into the potion.

They continued their lesson like this until their potion had become a Cotton candy pink. Marking another successful potion.

Looking up from her potion, Greengrass looked at him, her face one of patience.

"Well? What do you think?" She asked.

"It looks perfect again." Was all he said, hoping to reassure her if there had been any doubts.

"Really, Why do you think so?" She asked her intentions showing through.

He had to keep himself from grinning outrageously at her, why did he even think that she would doubt herself? These moments made her so easy to read.

"Because you knew exactly what to do, and how to do it. You're very good at this." He answered in a monotone voice, hoping to dim the blatant praise a bit.

It did little as her ego seemed to inflate considerably as she grinned, seemingly growing a few centimeters, still being shorter than him, but growing nonetheless.

Yes, he thought, laughing inwardly, Daphne Greengrass was a lot of things, however one thing stood above all: self-confidence and pride, which could sometimes be seen as borderline snobbish; like he had done when they first came into contact, literally.

She very much liked to be praised, which she sometimes tried to hide when it became embarrassing even for her, but only served to make it look worse as her attempts were as bad as Ron trying to pronounce Expelliarmus with a full mouth. Likewise she could quickly turn sour when things didn't go her way, blaming everyone and everything except herself. Herbology being a good example here, as the plant only seemed capable of being unhelpful and aggressive while they were trying to _clean_ and _feed_ it. How did those kinds of plants manage to grow in the wild anyway? Gnomes?

"Very good indeed, ten points to Gryffindor and Slytherin!" Slughorn called out emotionally from behind them, appearing so suddenly that Harry seriously began to consider whether or not Slughorn had learned some kind of silent apparition.

"But don't forget yourself Harry, you are making real progress here under the guidance of Miss Greengrass!" Slughorn said. Greengrass inflated a bit more here, before he slapped Harry on the shoulder, catching him like a Bear Trap.

The others in the class had finished their potion by now and were beginning to watch the show.

"Harry, I know full well that you follow a very busy life but surely there will be a moment during supper somewhere next week where-"

"I'm sorry Professor, but I will likely serve detention on that date." Harry began, trying his best to sound apologetic and disappointed.

"How so Harry? You don't even know the date of the meal yet." Slughorn pressed distraught.

"I have a detention which I still need to serve with Snape—Professor Snape, he will likely place it upon the same date after hearing about my eagerness to come." He lied, surprising even himself at how easy it went, normally he was quite bad at it.

"I see, how horrible..." Slughorn muttered, trailing off, before he suddenly perked up and squeezed his shoulder reassuringly.

"No worries m'boy! I will speak with good Professor Snape and ask him to let you serve your detention with me instead, this way you can finally come to the Slug Club, and surely serve a much more enjoyable detention!" Slughorn exclaimed, looking ready to run out of the classroom in anticipation.

Harry could only swallow his words as they rebounded back to him twice as hard. There was no way that Snape was going to keep his detention from Slughorn. The mustached man practically had a golden road laid in front of him with this opportunity.

Now he was going to come to the Club, serve detention, and likely go to the Christmas party.

Turning his head slightly he saw that Ron looked like he had just heard something tragic, sending him a sympathetic look, Hermione sported a look that said 'I told you so', and Greengrass quite pleased with it all.

"Okay class, quickly clean up your tables, I'll have a look later on at your cauldrons!" Slughorn said, eager to hasten their departure plans already on his mind.

"Finally coming to join the Club, Potter?" Greengrass asked as they started cleaning up their table.

"Guess so. Slughorn definitely isn't going to back down on this one." Harry said morosely.

"Why didn't you come in the first place?" She asked, almost accusingly.

"Oh, you know, have a lot of stuff to do." He said simply, hoping to leave it there.

"What kind of 'stuff' could you be so busy with? It's not like homework takes up all our free time." She asked, suddenly focused on his answer as she stopped putting away tools from the table to look at him.

"Some practice and the like, besides I feel no need to come to his parties, I will only be meeting people Slughorn wants to introduce me to. Not to mention that I'm simply there for being the 'Chosen One'." He said giving more reasons, quickly striking over her initial question.

"It's not so bad Potter, there will be others, mostly the same ones, and the food is good, lots of sweets too." She said counting off her good points, which weren't that impressive to him.

"Look, I'll also be there, that suddenly made it a lot better right?" she said nonchalantly, actually managing to make it sound like a legit reason.

He rolled his eyes at her words. This girl.

"Granger will also be there if it helps." The last part sounding a bit stiff as she put the last items away.

"Well I'll just have to wait and see how it ends. Thanks for the lesson, see you around Greengrass." He said, giving a wave, slinging his bag over his shoulder and moving away to join his friends. Noting that Ron's cauldron still had its contents despite being a brownish colour.

Ron and Davis had actually managed to produce _something._

"Yeah, see you." Greengrass replied behind him, before joining her own friend.

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**Changed some things about magic here as you've read, Darker spells require darker intent and emotions. As such Harry's capability of using Dark spells is also more different from canon here, being the very righteous person that he is; gives him more difficulties on using the Dark arts initially.**

**What you decide to do with the spell ultimately defines you, The Dark arts have simply more bad than good people in its balance because of its nature. **

**My story will probably be much like this chapter; moving in ups and downs. I like drama and angst, but not a truck load of it, same with romance and humor. I hope those transitions go well as they can be hard to do.**

**Tell me what you think! love it? hate it?**

**Lastly i thank you for reading, hope that you enjoyed, and will continue to do so in the future.**

**Renata MM****: Occlumency is probably a subject hard to teach yourself, mental shielding likely needs to be actively tested and prodded for effective learning (at least in canon and mine). More about the RoR is for the future. I'm glad that you liked Daphne, and hope you still do after this chapt, which gave quite some insight I think xD lastly I thank you got pointing out the HoM classes, fixed it now, totally forgot.**

**UltimateTouken: the assimilation, if i can still call it that, will be done a bit differently, or at least in a way I've hardly read about in my years of FF. However it is likely done some times. And yes, I also find canon's explanation of love powering Harry's wand + the whole ownership stuff BS.**

**area808code: Thanks, Fixed the duodue, I'll try to watch the haven, having.**

**kartik kirk: Thank you, as for my hp/dg suggstions: **

**Thanks to a Snake and Harry Potter and the Marriage Contracts: Probably the most succesful hg/dg stories. one very long and one quite short.**

**The Snake Within: With an ice queen Daphne.**

**The Pureblood Princess: Good one, sad ending. I cried rivers.**

**Unatoned: Realistic, mature crime fic, really 'interesting' Daphne.**

**Any story of James Spookie, he/she wrote alot of hp/dg that i liked. **

**The Legacy: Humongous story length, slow paced and realistic.**

**All these stories are complete, with the exception of The Legacy which isn't abandoned luckily. I found that these were the most enjoyable and ****memorable stories for me. **

**Hope that you and others find something to your liking, if you didn't know them already.**


	8. a Growl and a Woman

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter Universe and all the characters belong to J.K. Rowling.

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**Special thanks to Yuigfhf for beta-ing this chapter and removing obvious grammar mistakes!**

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After their potion lessons they moved downstairs to the common room to sit at the fire, lounging in their chairs, only a few other Slytherins with them spread throughout the room. She herself was reading the Daily Prophet that had lain on a nearby table idly going through the pages and reading some articles. Tracey had the Witch Weekly, making the puzzles and quizzes on the back.

"Any interesting news?" Tracey asked, not looking up from her page.

"The usual; a few people are missing again and the ministry is spewing propaganda about how great everything is going." She answered, grabbing a random sweet from her bag and putting it into her mouth.

"Same old then." Tracey replied passively, seeing that nothing else could be said and that it was no joking material.

They continued to sit in a comfortable silence for a while, until multiple footsteps were heard through the otherwise silent common room, Malfoy came down from the stairs, without his cronies and crossed the common room in a straight line, without a word to anyone, nor the usual flaunting of his superior attitude.

He didn't seem to be in need of any worshipping as he kept quiet, his face had a look of deep thought, he probably didn't even see any of them, away in his own world.

Malfoy always took the time to bother other people, wanting them to know that he was 'running' the house. He had made a fair amount of connections this way throughout the years, connections that now seemed to either dwindle or continue in secret. She wasn't sure.

He had also bothered her multiple times in the past. She had mostly played along those times, so did Tracey, otherwise they would be hearing it for hours from him, talking nonsense about his glorious family line.

She had chosen the same as her parents; avoided giving clear statements and opinions about important subjects, it kept them within sight but inside the shadows. Tracey was in the same boat as her, rather pushed inside it, as she was a Half-blood, being considered less important because of it.

Daphne didn't concern herself with Malfoy, and luckily he also didn't give her too much attention. He had Parkinson whenever he wanted some female company she thought; glad that she had a sweet in her mouth to prevent the vile taste from coming up.

They had been quick to notice his sudden change of behavior after starting their year, Malfoy had yet to show them his usual antics: giving his speech to the new first years, ridiculing Gryffindors with his gang, preach about the Dark Lord and moan about everything Potter did.

Not showing any of his usual boasting and blabbering self was strange. Surely Malfoy would have made a big deal out of their partnership with the Gryffindors, being paired with Neville Longbottom himself. Who was another target of his pestering should have made him go on for days, protesting and speaking shame of the whole ordeal, rallying the house to work against the Gryffindors as much as possible.

She had expected that she herself especially would have been in his spotlight, being Pureblood and from one of the Ancient Houses. Working with Potter in a friendly partnership should have been complete blasphemy to him.

But none of that happened, he had yet to say a word about it, he didn't even seem to look up at them during their lessons.

"Malfoy has changed a lot these days hasn't he?" Tracey said with no particular sympathy after Malfoy had left the room, having been thinking along the same lines as her.

Tracey was right in more ways than one: his hair looked less slick, the normally absurd amount of time invested in it had lessened, making it look more natural; which actually looked strange on him. His eyes had slight bags underneath them, as if he was getting sleep shortage.

It reminded her a bit of Potter: his hair that didn't receive much effort and eyes that looked a bit tired. Giving signs of slight exhaustion, but he often shook it off when she tried to have a closer look at him and his behavior.

"He's been keeping a lot to himself, overly so. Even his cronies don't surrounds him at all times anymore." Tracey continued.

"It's sudden, yes." Daphne simply said.

"What do you reckon to be the cause?" Tracey asked, wondering.

"I don't know and don't care, I'm not interested in any business Malfoy deals with." Daphne said, simply glad that he wasn't bothering her or anyone else near her. "Maybe he finally grew a pair and started doing things on his own." Daphne answered bluntly after Tracey's silence.

"Nobody seems to have a clue as to where he does and what he does you know. He never returns on time either, seems to be gone the entire evening." Tracey pressed after her response.

"Ok, ok. I know it's suspicious Tracey." Daphne said, exasperated.

"Malfoy must be plotting world domination." Tracey concluded in a serious voice. Making Daphne reconsider the point of discussing these kinds of matters with her. Tracey could be so stubborn when convinced of something.

"Don't think so, Malfoy is pretty useless without his father, he's probably just swallowing sadness." Daphne said as she took another candy.

"He's been away every evening since sixth year started Daphne, something's fishy." Tracey said, turning serious again.

"Maybe so but come on, what could he possibly do? We are in one of the most heavily guarded and enchanted places in the world." Daphne questioned, not really believing Malfoy to be a serious threat.

"I dunno…stuff." Tracey lamely answered, unable to think of anything. "But he is acting more slimy than Salazar's snake, and that says something!"

"Right." Daphne finished. Not wanting to indulge any further on Malfoy's business. Knowing that she had won this battle but not the war.

Their conversation went silent after this, Daphne was nearing the end of her paper and Tracey was currently rummaging in her bag before pulling a familiar book out of it.

"Here, I'm giving it back, I don't have the patience, nor the talent for learning it." Tracey said sourly as she held out the medium sized book to Daphne.

"Told you so." Said Daphne as she took the book from her hand.

"Well I can't say that I gave it my all, it was mostly out of curiosity." Tracey said, defending herself.

"Like I said before you began; Occlumency isn't something you learn for fun or out of interest, it's a necessity and solution." Daphne reasoned with her.

"Yeah I know, I know. Just wanted to try it anyway. Thought it would be pretty cool." Tracey said.

"Yes, I saw your enthusiasm droop after a few headaches." Daphne said, grinning knowingly.

"Please don't remind me Daphne." She moaned.

Daphne smiled a bit, Tracey always had these rushes of suddenly wanting to try something out, it didn't matter what it was, it just needed to catch her interest. Occlumency had always been on Tracey's to do list when she heard about it from Daphne.

She had lend Tracey the book when she came over during the summer, the book wasn't overly rare, and she herself knew the contents by now, however Occlumency and Legilimency were difficult branches of magic to learn, often asking for dedication and aptitude to learn either of them, not to mention a mentor to stimulate and guide said progress.

Her family line began learning the arts in their early rise, many generations ago, being a great help in their times of war. Passing it on from generation to generation with books and tutoring, becoming more of a family thing and tradition later on. It had been the main reason why her father had taught her.

She herself had more success in Legilimency with the help of her father, allowing her to practice on his barriers. Occlumency however was not her forte, she had tried but hadn't managed to build strong defenses, but maybe she needed to put more effort into it. The headaches simply weren't much to look forward to every lesson; she had dropped it after finding little reason to forge her shields into iron gates.

Legilimency was her talent; it also didn't give any prolonged headaches. That helped.

"Come on, let's go to the library. Get some information written down before it closes. We have essays to finish." Daphne said, standing up from her chair, already wanting to sink back in it.

"Uuuhh…yeah I guess you're right, we still have that extra long one for DADA waiting for us. Let me get my parchment and quill. " Tracey said, slowly rising from her chair.

"I have enough with me, we can go right away. Good thing I'm always prepared right?" Daphne said, grinning a bit, making sure that Tracey had no means of dragging things out, as she always did with these kinds of tasks. They moved to the stairs, out of the common room and dungeons, Tracey reluctantly following her.

They traveled up the staircase out of the Slytherin Dungeon, through the Dungeon Corridor. Daphne was walking with Tracey trudging alongside her, the long and gloomy corridor soon passing them along with the Potions Classroom.

Continuing upwards they soon came upon the more normal parts of the castle, leaving the chilly atmosphere of the Dungeons behind them. She wasn't particularly fond of it; she preferred something warmer looking instead of the bland and boney decorated Slytherin properties.

They had soon left most of the stairway work behind them now, this was another downside of being in the dungeons; you always traveled upwards.

They finished the last staircase of sizeable length, glad that only a few small ones remained now, Tracey already seemed to cheer up from having the end of their journey in sight.

"Say Daphne, I suddenly got a good one during our walk." Tracey said from her right, her face eager to tell it.

"No Tracey, just don't." Daphne said, trying to save Tracey's humor from becoming any worse.

"What do you call an owl with a deep voice?" Tracey asked, grinning as they turned into another hallway.

"Potter." She said recognizing him and forgetting Tracey's 'joke'.

"A growl! Although I must say that you were pretty close." Tracey said, as she held her hand to her chin in thought.

"No, look over there you dimwit!" She hissed, pushing Tracey and herself close to the wall, their bodies mostly obscured by an old closet that was likely to be moved downstairs.

At the intersection ahead of them stood Potter, Granger and Weasley. This was nothing strange and normally she wouldn't have done this but they were talking animatedly to each other, mainly Granger and Potter, in some kind of disagreement. Weasley seemed to be the peacekeeper between them this time around, holding his hands up and looking between them, mainly trying to get Granger to drop her case, as he offered words between their discussions.

"It's the trio, so what? You completely ruined my joke Daphne!" Tracey hissed back. Her failed joke being the most important to her.

"Shut up Tracey, it was ruined from the start." Daphne cut in.

"Please remind me: why are we hiding again, Daphne?" Tracey grumbled.

Daphne merely gestured at her, indicating that she needed to be silent.

"Come…Harry…enough training." A feminine voice said, the long hallway allowing echoing words to reach them. She listened attentively to the few words that reached them, her mind working to make sense out of it as she watched their body language and expressions change throughout every syllable.

Granger was holding a parchment; likely an essay, faintly gesturing to it and nudging her head towards the hall that lead to the library, her look turning a bit somber as he answered.

"Sorry…habit…I'll catch up…important…" A voice she recognized as Potter echoed to them, giving Granger a small smile, while looking apologetic. The distortion of the hollow echo making their voices sound different.

"Don't worry…next time…together…Hermione." Weasley echoed, lightly pushing Granger towards the direction she had been indicating to before. Before giving Potter a lingering glance himself, giving him another chance to concede.

But Potter didn't. Keeping the same look on his face as they left. Letting it slide from his features when they were gone from his line of sight; a more serious expression replacing it before he turned on his heel and walked away in the opposite direction, whisking out of sight as he rounded the corner.

"…You eavesdropped again Daphne." Accused Tracey after the trio had split up and left.

"_We_ couldn't follow their conversation, therefore _we_ only observed them, Tracey." Daphne shot back, referring to them both.

"I call it stalking." Tracey blandly filled in.

"Let's go." Daphne simply said, having decided on what to do, pointedly ignoring her comment and coming out from behind the closet and began to head towards the intersection the trio stood moments before, her next course of action clear.

Tracey, however suddenly grabbed her wrist, halting her march. "Look, Malfoy!" She exclaimed, making Daphne turn her head, just in time to see Malfoy disappear into a staircase in the opposite direction of the intersection where she was heading.

"Seriously now! What are the fucking chances?" Daphne cursed in frustration. Why had both of them had to show up at the same time!

Tracey looked at her with a look of burning curiosity, her pigheadedness showing itself again as she wanted to know what Malfoy was doing. Proving to her that Daphne had indeed; merely won the battle but not the war. Tracey was sure of her case and wanted to have proof.

It was an expression she likely wore herself but for a completely different person, a person who had gone in the opposite direction.

"It doesn't matter Tracey, Malfoy isn't doing anything major!"

"Neither is Potter!" Tracey counted quickly.

Precious seconds went by as they silently tried to convince each other to follow their own point of interest, before they each decided on a conclusion as time was ticking.

"You follow Malfoy, and I'll go for Potter-"

"-You go for Potter and I'll tail Malfoy!"

They spoke at the same time, their words mingling into something incomprehensible. The message was clear to them anyway, as each took off in opposite directions, smiling a bit at their moment and not wasting a moment longer.

Daphne continued her way in a hurried pace, turning left where she had seen Potter disappear into, finding stairs that led to the next floor. She grumbled a bit, more stairs to climb, great.

She exited the stairs, coming out into the middle of a hallway and was met with the first choice for the evening, left or right.

She stopped for a moment; she had to think carefully now, each direction would lead her into a completely different part of the castle, taking the wrong one at the start would surely make her lose him completely.

Daphne racked her brain to remember the layout of the castle…right would mainly lead to back to the library again, left would bring her into a largely unused part of the castle, full with storage rooms and abandoned classrooms.

Potter had likely gone left, he hadn't come with Granger and Weasley to the direction of the library in the first place, but then again; maybe they hadn't been heading to the library in the first place and she had just understood it as such, and had he taken the right route for something else entirely.

To the left were the unused classrooms and storage rooms; they were either empty or filled with junk. Potter was likely in one of those classrooms, practicing magic as her best guess. He had said so himself in their Potions lessons just the day before, speaking only one word about it before striking over it with something else.

But she had noticed and remembered, and now, just moments before; she heard it again through the echoes of the conversation with his friends, giving her more confidence in her assumption as to why he would be in one of these classrooms.

But she wanted to see what it was on which he supposedly spend his evening on every day.

She turned left with that thought, looking through the keyholes of every classroom she passed. Hoping to find him behind one of them.

She wasn't a stalker, shut up Tracey!

She wondered why; why was Harry Potter practicing spells? If that was what he truly was doing, and doing so a lot; judging by the reaction of his friends, trying to drag him with them.

Daphne hadn't seen him perform much magic but Potter didn't seem to be very bad in any area, being even the best in DADA, if scores were anything to go by from. Was he trying to become better in others then? Transfiguration? Charms, for what purpose?

She thought back to Tracey, feeling a bit uncomfortable with leaving her to chase Malfoy by herself. The ponce couldn't do much, but the thought didn't sit all that well with her. She felt a bit conflicted, on one side she wanted to leave and find Tracey again, but the other side told her she was close on finding something important, urging her on.

Tracey likely felt the same right now, however probably felt more nervous as she and Malfoy weren't on any particularly good terms, just neutrality, unlike Daphne and Potter, who had a good partnership going.

She was at the end of the hallway, being given another choice in directions, however both decisions led to more classrooms, she could only trust her gut now.

Rows went by like this; she finished them before returning to her starting point, taking another route from there. She could see the outside sky through the windows; it was becoming dark and she would soon have to give up and return to the Dungeons.

She looked through a keyhole, already moving back up to look into the next one before the contents were actually processed by her brain.

She stopped for a moment, realized what she had seen and dived back to the keyhole.

Her eyes hadn't lied! Sure enough there stood Potter. Holding his wand out in front of him, turning and rolling it in his hand before his eyes, clearly inspecting it from what she could tell by looking at his movements, he seemed puzzled for some reason.

He decidedly deemed it unimportant as he pointed his wand at one of the pillars in front of him in the classroom, firing off a cardinal red spell.

She had expected a Reducto or a Diffindo; just something along those lines but immediately knew she was wrong when she saw the red colour, even more so when the entire pillar broke in two from the spell, snapping like a twig. No sound was made but she could feel the ground vibrate a bit when the chunks hit the floor.

She jumped a bit in surprise despite the events being completely silent through a Silencing Charm he had likely cast beforehand.

She leaned closer to the keyhole again, getting more field in her vision, Potter was inspecting his wand again, seemingly surprised himself with the outcome of his spell.

He then repaired the pillar using a Reparo after which he waved his wand again, letting small sounds leave the keyhole she was looking through as he had dispelled his Silencing Charm while beginning to grab his parchments from a nearby table, putting them in his bag.

She realized that Potter was preparing to leave and would soon be coming out of the classroom. She had to get out of here!

She quickly looked from left to right, seeing that either hallway was too long to go unnoticed in the small of amount of time she had left. She would just have to pick one of the classrooms and hide until he passed her.

She skipped the first door; finding the classroom next to his uncomfortably close, she turned the handle of the next door; it was locked. Quickly moving to the next door she tried again; locked.

Daphne knew that he could be coming out any moment now, seeing her trying to open doors frantically; looking extremely suspicious as she had absolutely no reason to be in this hallway so close to his own. Standing in a part of the castle that was far away from the more busier and accessible routes having no sensible excuse besides 'practice' herself. Which wasn't even logical in the first place as she was a perfectly capable witch, thank you very much!

She tip toed as fast as she silently could to the next handle and felt instant relief when it turned in her hand; it hadn't been locked. She quickly jumped inside and closed it behind her, descending her swing of the door to a minimum at the last centimeters, closing it softly.

Daphne walked back from the door, feeling as though he would be bursting through it any second. She had no idea if Potter had seen or heard her, her palms were a bit sweaty from anxiety as she waited, each second and minute helping to relieve her mind.

She moved back to the door again, opening it slightly and peeking through the slit, finding that the hall was empty and no sounds were made, making her emerge from the classroom and head back to her own common room. Trying to make no sound again as she walked, still feeling the urge to be silent.

Why had she become so nervous anyway? Daphne felt as though she had seen something she shouldn't have, something important and secret. But it had just been Potter: her patient, attentive and polite partner. A guy who frowned at himself; disappointed when he made an error, and smiled slightly whenever he rightfully praised her, his green eyes dancing in amusement.

She realized that she felt a bit guilty by her actions, as if she had wronged him by invading his privacy and reading his dairy. But she didn't linger too long on it; her mind was whirling on the spell he had used.

She vaguely recognized the red spell Potter had used; her father had shown her the same red colour when she was young, explaining her the spell in a serious tone and expression. Daphne pondered as she walked, but quickly grew annoyed when she found herself unable to recall the spell. She knew it had been one of her father's no-nonsense spells, but that was all, it was on the tip of her tongue.

She took a detour, navigating through parts where Tracey had likely walked through after going in Malfoy's direction. However, only empty hallways greeted her; no sign of Tracey, or anyone for that matter, making her wonder how much time had gone by, it was dark outside by now.

Daphne moved to take out her wand, intending to cast the tempus Charm and find out how much time had passed. Yet was halted when a jovial voice spoke out from behind her.

"Daphne! Good girl, what are you doing out here this late?" the voice she recognized to be Slughorn said.

"I was in the library, Professor. Collecting information for essays." She lied as she turned around to face him, couldn't tell him she had been _observing_ Potter for a prolonged amount of time now could she?

"A splendid attitude as expected! But tell me Daphne, where is your friend Tracey? Surely you would do those things together?" Slughorn inquired, noticing the absence of her friend.

"Tracey hates doing homework, she had opted to wait in the common room while I went to write some things down for us to use later." Daphne said, using some truth for explanations.

"Really now, until you were out after curfew by yourself then?" Slughorn seemed to ask her, looking a bit doubtful.

"Yes Professor, I simply forgot how much time had passed, could you let it slide this time?" Daphne lightly pleaded with him.

Slughorn smiled and seemed to comply to her request "Well since I'm in a rather good mood after managing to replace Potter's detention I—"

He suddenly stopped and Daphne thought for a moment that Slughorn knew about what she had actually been doing, but quickly dismissed it; nobody else had been with her in the abandoned hallway.

She watched as his facial expressions shifted from his usual cheerful face to one of sudden realization, to ecstatic before trying to cover it up with a bad impression of what should have been a stern and serious face, reminding her of Tracey's rather bad attempts at trying to remain sober after a joke.

"No, no. Absolutely not Daphne, I am a Professor and therefore I should not show any favoritism to any students. Twenty Points reduction and a detention is the standard punishment in this case." He said as his face strained with the effort to remain stern looking.

Daphne fought down the urge to raise her eyebrows higher than the tallest Hogwarts tower as she heard him talk about not showing any favoritism, he would practically put her and Potter on a pedestal if he could. Not to mention that his sudden turnaround and gleeful mood was highly suspicious, especially when he was giving one of his favorite students detention during said mood.

"Yes, just perfect." He said, more to himself than her before continuing. "Report to my office this Saturday At seven for detention. Now come with me Miss. Greengrass, I'll escort you to the Dungeons." He said acting as though he had given her a delicious cake.

She mentally groaned and turned to follow his moustache-twirling figure. "Yes, Professor."

Their walk was silent as she did her best to remember the spell Potter had used while Slughorn seemed to be lost in his own stride, looking quite pleased with himself.

An idea struck her as she turned to the potions Professor.

"Professor... a few days ago Tracey and I discussed the allegiance of spell colours to their intention and purpose, green for example often inflicts curses and deteriorating effects, while blue is for defensive spells. Tracey and I however were wondering about the purpose of red coloured spells, could you elaborate sir?" Daphne said, making up a story about their ignorance, trusting Slughorn not too look too deeply into it in his upbeat mood.

"Really? Why you were right about the notion; colours often indicate the type and purpose of the spell, however effects will differentiate even within the same colour, red being a good example here, it mostly contains spells which are focused on the offensive aspect, the difference mostly lies in what way and damage."

Daphne nodded, acting as though it was all new to her before continuing. " What kind of spells could be primary examples Professor?"

Slughorn twirled his moustache once before answering. "The most noticeably examples that are passive in their damage would the Stupefy and Expelliarmus."

"And the Offensive spells? Ones that would be doing more damage?" Daphne asked airily.

"The Cruciatus Curse would be the most recognizable example here, others would be Curses that deal in the breaking and splintering of the opponent's bones, the Bone-Breaking being the most known for it, entering the area of the Dark arts along with its brother and sister variations. " Slughorn told her before launching into a story about some important person he met through someone else's brother, his own explanation making him remember.

Daphne however had stopped listening as soon as he mentioned the Bone-Breaking Curse; that was it! The Curse her father had shown and told her about. The cardinal coloured light that Potter had fired looked the same as she had seen years ago from her father. It hadn't been Crimson from the Expelliarmus nor the pale red from a stunner; their damage wasn't pillar shattering either, far from it.

Potter was practicing the Dark arts, nothing extreme but definitely using a spell from it. Daphne thought back to the beginning of her school year and what she had said to Tracey on the train; how the idea of the Gryffindor Golden Boy doing anything remotely Dark was laughable to her.

She now had to eat her words as she had been proven wrong by Potter himself, unknowingly but proven nonetheless.

Her mind wasn't relieved after her search for answers, Daphne had meant to get a few simple answers but many more had risen in return: why was he practicing them? Was he learning more? Did his friends know? Didn't he know the dangers of practicing them?

They had arrived at the entrance in the meantime, Slughorn reminding her one last time of her detention before walking away, she slugged through the entrance and up the dorms as she noticed Tracey's absence in the common room.

She felt relieved to see Tracey sitting on her own bed, having been waiting for her, the two of them being the only ones in their dorm.

"What took you so long Daphne!" Tracey yelled in impatience and slight worry.

Daphne walked up to her bed and landed face first on it. Enough adventure for today…

"Things got dragged out a bit, shit happened." She said after she had turned her face out of her soft pillow.

"A bit? I've been waiting for two hours, how determined are you, woman? Did you search the entire castle or something?" Tracey asked incredulously. "I couldn't find again you after losing Malfoy, I was nearly going to get a teacher and look for you." Tracey continued.

"I'm fine, discovered nothing on Malfoy then? As expected of course." Daphne asked from her limp position.

"Only because I lost him between the hallways and stairs…but this isn't the last he'll be seeing of me, or rather the last I'll be seeing from him!" Tracey said determined.

"But what happened Daphne? What took you so long?" Tracey asked, coming back to her original question.

"Oh Slughorn found me afterwards which also dragged things out, got detention with Slughorn Saturday. He seemed oddly pleased with it though." Daphne said.

She pushed herself up into a sitting position across from Tracey, energy returning to her as she thought about everything she had seen. "But more importantly; listen up Tracey, you'll never guess what I saw."

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**One long POV this time from Daphne.**

**Note that this chapter starts directly after chapt 7**

**Share your thoughts!**

**Kartik Kirk: I will most likely not focus on Ginny, maybe Neville and Luna but can't say for sure.**

**Stephen: I laughed a bit at the irony after I put your review through google translate; You translated my story and I translated your review.**

**Answering anything else from the reviews would be spoilers so :p**

**Lastly I thank you for reading, hope that you enjoyed, and will continue to do so in the future.**


	9. Entity and Detention

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter Universe and all the characters belong to J.K. Rowling.

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Harry stood in the unused classroom again, he had gone to train again after separating from Ron and Hermione in the hallway, intending to make his Bone-Breaking Curse perfect.

It had, however, been much more than perfect; the same spell and effort that previously broke of chunks from the pillar now promptly broke it in two.

The first time he had been surprised and passed it off, suspecting the pillar to have been improperly repaired, he mended it again, inspecting it for any cracks and imperfections beforehand.

He had cast the spell again receiving the same result, making his excitement rise significantly.

He started casting the spell again and again, feeling as though he was dreaming with the surreal progress he had made, the pillar that previously would have remained standing now raptured throughout its entire width, breaking before the strength he was exerting.

Harry felt enjoyment as he began to fill his session with destroying pillars, one after the other, thrilled by his sudden empowerment, he didn't bother to find out why it had happened, too distracted by his own display of success. It must have been out of his hard efforts. His dedication and continued exhaustion of magical reserves had enhanced his core!

The increase in strength felt fantastic, nearly double the power of what he was used to surged through his arm, and out of his wand, reproducing the same result without failure. He would surely become strong enough if he continued like this, becoming strong enough to keep everyone from harm!

However he had noticed one small thing that actually did feel differently in a negative way: less comfortable, less friendly and less cooperative; his Holly wand. He hadn't noticed during the start of the training, but he began to as the evening went on.

It wasn't anything considerable or influencing. More like a shoe that suddenly didn't fit as well as it used to. It puzzled him as he looked inquisitively at his wand, looking for any damage or change to it.

He tried again after finding none. The pillar broke in two from the force and his wand tugged in the same way as moments before; slightly uncomfortable. He looked at it again, puzzled as to why it felt this way all of a sudden.

He pushed the thoughts away, it wasn't anything major, it still felt plenty warm and friendly. He dispelled his Silencing Charm and started packing his parchments back into his bag again.

It's probably become late again, I should start heading back to the common room; good thing I brought my cloak this time.

Harry swung his cloak over himself and opened the door of his classroom, the empty hallway greeting him, the cloudy night sky shrouding the moon and corridor in darkness, the only light source being the few candles again on the walls.

He thought that he saw a door move some way in the distance, but it must have been a trick of the shadows from the flickering candles, making shadows dance.

He made his way to the Gryffindor tower, coming across a patrolling McGonagall, easily passing her unnoticed under his invisibility cloak.

Harry stuffed his cloak back into his bag again a short distance before the portrait of the Fat Lady, ignoring her complaints about being late again and entering the hole into the common room, it hadn't been overly late, plenty of students still talked and lounged casually in the room.

He wondered how Luna was doing as he walked forward through the other students. He had hardly seen her since the train ride. Did people still pick on her? They better not be, otherwise he'll make sure to convince said people of their wrongdoings.

Harry neared the corner where he, Ron and Hermione sat most of the times.

Neville was playing Exploding Snap with Seamus, both of them enjoying their game as they talked and laughed. Glancing at another corner he saw Dean and Ginny engaged in what seemed to be a light conversation as they sat close to each other holding hands, were they a thing? Since when?

He was proven right as he saw Hermione and Ron seated at the table, another empty chair positioned with them. One that they kept open for him as they awaited his return.

They were seated next to each other, not overly so like Ginny and Dean had been, but closer than normally. Hermione was busying herself by helping Ron with his homework, explaining things in detail and careful instructions, Ron actually seemed to try and listen to her, as his face was set in confusion rather than his usual behavior of ignorance.

The changes in his environment felt strange, the time he had missed from training and researching had alienated him a bit from the daily happenings and changes of his house, making him feel like he was standing in his own separate common room.

They looked up and smiled as he seated himself with them, Ron asking him if he wanted to play some chess later on and Hermione offering her help to finish his homework more quickly.

Harry felt himself smile as he answered each of them, already feeling more at ease.

For tonight he would skip his research and allow himself to be selfish by spending more time with his friends, tomorrow he'll redouble his efforts in return. He couldn't have both; sacrifices had to be made. He was just making sure that this time around; it would be him doing the paying.

It was the best, and least he could do for everyone.

* * *

Absolute silence surrounded him as he found himself standing in an endlessly stretching whiteness, no orientation point except for a black cage in the distance, a humanoid shape inside of it. not giving him any indication that he had seen Harry in the vast nothingness around them.

It took him some time but he started to remember the last time he had been here; at the beginning of his year. The dream had been short and vague, quickly forgotten as Harry dived in his whirlwind of activities and events.

A few seconds passed as he mulled things over before he started moving towards the cage in the distance.

The walk only took a few minutes but felt like an eternity. There was no horizon, no left from right no up from down, the small journey only served to be disorientating as he didn't see any ground to step on. The cage and small cabinet in the distance being his only point of direction as he continued, which slowly grew in size as he closed in on it with each step.

He stopped; the cage standing an arm's length away from him, being quick to note that the entity had changed in appearance from the last time he had seen it.

Its build and length no longer was that of an eleven year old, like it had been last time, it was taller and a bit broader; looking to be thirteen years old. Its facial features seemed to have become more defined; showing eye and nose sockets with a few lines that defined his jaw and cheeks in the structure of a young male.

The other and most defining aspect was the same as his skin was pitch black with embers and smoke trailing from its smoldering body.

"Had a good evening Harry?"

Harry's attention quickly shifted to its face in surprise. It hadn't been able to talk last time. The voice was a mixture of someone his age coupled with a hollow undertone, making it sound dark and friendly at the same time.

It had also given a very human greeting, even sounding casual, as if he wasn't speaking to Harry from his imprisoned position.

"…Yes..I did." He answered slowly, apprehensive of the whole situation.

"That's good Harry, enjoyment is something we need besides our hard work." It responded airily.

Silence descended on them as nothing else was said.

Harry's mind was more confused than McLaggen had been from Hermione's Confundo. This dream was just too weird to be real, what is this place? Who or what was this thing before him? Was it even possible to have a dream like this two times?

"I see your internal confusion Harry, and can assure you that this is no dream, illusion or hallucination." The entity said, after reading his evident confusion.

"Then what is this?" Harry asked, beginning his first question.

"This, Harry. Is reality. A space you yourself created for our meeting." It said, explaining little.

"Who or what are you?" Harry asked, repeating his question from the first time they met.

"I am you, your guide and salvation. But above that; I am a part of yourself you have not accepted yet."

"Is that why you are in a cage? Because I haven't accepted you?" He asked, inspecting the cage with his eyes from where he stood.

The bars were thick and black, each shaft, corner, spike and flat surface of the cage was decorated with inscriptions and little drawings, which would have made just about anything beautiful had it not been used for a jail.

"Yes, Harry."

"And now you want me to release you, just like you wanted me to last time? Use the key and open the cage?" Harry questioned, gesturing to the cabinet which held the intricate key a few meters away from them.

"I admit that I may have acted a bit impatiently last time we met. It would be the quickest way of releasing me, yes." It admitted in a simple demeanor.

"There are others then?" Harry questioned after hearing him mention it would be the quickest way, indicating multiple approaches.

"There are, one is to release me physically by using the lock and key. The other is emotionally, by accepting my help and recognizing my existence as a part of you." It said, his smoldering body and expressionless face giving away little signs as to what his goals and intentions were.

"Well forget the key, you are staying in the cage, you look a bit too suspicious for my liking." Harry said flatly.

"Emotionally it is then Harry." Was the simple response, no doubt in the creeping voice, merely stating a fact, reminding Harry why his presence felt uncomfortable. It felt as if he was talking to an adult in a child's body, it didn't match.

"You seem pretty confident in yourself." Harry said, thinking out loud.

"Because I know that you will seek me out, I can help you." It stated again, no smug or haughtiness in his voice and demeanor.

"Help me with what?" Harry questioned, already having a faint idea.

"Don't act ignorant harry, I am you; I know what you've been through, I know what you fear and what you desire; You fear for your friends, you fear loss and you fear guilt. You desire strength, you desire answers, and you desire love."

"I can help you with those, for with time I will show, and prove that everything I do; is for you." It finished explained, Harry having grown more uncomfortable after each word struck a nerve inside him, being spot on and confirming things he himself hadn't realized about himself yet.

"What could you possibly do for me then? Your just something in my mind." He asked, quickly recovering and focusing back on him.

"Am I? Well its fine if you want to define me as such, as long as you accept it. It's the same as I said before Harry; I will be your guide and salvation. A guide to lead you through important choices and salvation to offer you the means of passing them." It said, taking a step forward in his cage.

"Doing so would mean I accept help from you, besides, I have no need of you." He said, unconvinced of his words.

"So be it Harry, just remember that I will be here should you require answers and support that nobody else can give you. Difficult times lay ahead, you'll see that I'll be on your side when nobody else is, I'll build you new bridges when all others have burned down, and I'll tell you the truth when everyone else lies to you." It said, speaking in the same confidence again.

"I can do things on my own. I'll find my own means and answers. I don't need the help of something as suspicious as you." Harry said, hoping to make it clear.

"You refer to your successes in training, you feel confident through your recent breakthroughs." The entity spoke, giving the reasons Harry felt confidence from.

"Yeah I do, I can improve on my own." Harry spoke boldly.

"Improvement is possible on your own Harry, but surely you won't pass of your recent achievements as simple effort, such leaps are not possible by any normal means." It spoke again, slightly sarcastic.

Harry halted for a moment, forced to see the unnatural leap in strength he had attained. "..You mean to tell me that you were involved then? Did you cause those illusions during my training and in the hallway? Are you a source of power?" He fired off when the thoughts ran through his mind.

"I merely provided you with the incentive you needed, a little push in the right direction. It proved to be affective as It worked like a charm. You were able to cast the spell because of my help, Harry. Soon after were we also able to take the magical potency of a Dark artifact for ourselves in the hallway." He spoke in a neutral tone.

The confession of being the cause of his illusions during his training did little to ease Harry's suspicion. But he continued, wanting to know more.

"What Dark artifact? How were you..I..or we, able to absorb it?" he asked, confused as to who was responsible.

"We, Harry, _we_ were able to. And telling you would reveal crucial information. I cannot tell you without helping you at the same time. I believe this to be against your wishes." He spoke, clasping his hands behind his back in a patient pose.

Harry tensed a bit, the entity was making him curious on purpose for he was sorely tempted to ask, but he refrained from doing so, convincing himself that he didn't need to know.

"You know..you could just be something from my imagination after all; you haven't revealed any information that was completely out of my own knowledge yet." Harry lightly taunted, hoping him to reveal things by himself.

"I take no insult to such words, I will prove myself to you with the right time and opportunity. I have everything you seek, Harry, all you have to do…is ask."

The scene soon distorted and vanished completely as he awoke with a gasp, the ceiling of the dorms having replaced the white abyss.

He wasn't sweaty, he didn't have a headache and his heart didn't hammer in his chest; there was no indication that it had been a bad or straining experience whatsoever. It was as if he had awoken from a completely normal dream, but he knew better than that.

For Harry Potter did not have ordinary dreams.

* * *

Harry walked in a slow pace, reluctant and dreary, for he was on his way to Horace Slughorn's office to serve his detention which had originally been with Snape. He idly wondered if detention with Snape would have been better, at least it would have ended after tonight. Slughorn was surely going to question every day on his agenda and fish for appointments.

The dream with the entity hadn't returned for the rest of the week, his fitful nightmares being the only thing that bothered him at night again. He had the feeling that it now was a choice he could make; the choice of either having his usual nightmares or to return to the entity in the abyss.

For now he rather kept away from it, and choose his nightmares.

His research had come to a standstill again, the information that Dumbledore had given seemed to make sense with what he had found beforehand and thought, but the questions that had been left open during their lesson were still unanswered.

He had gone to the Room of Requirements during the day after a moment of inspiration. Having paced three times in front of the room thinking about how he wanted to find information on soul anchoring and Dark spells to learn.

The door had appeared and a small room with a single bookcase stood inside it, for a moment he had cursed at himself, mocking his own stupidity for not having thought of it earlier.

But he was disappointed after looking at the titles of the books; a lot of them were the same ones that already stood in the Restricted Section. Others were vague, dodging and censored, the same was to be said for the Books of Dark spells. The room had merely answered in the best way it could have.

Still, he had found a few of what looked to be older and useful books, and took them with him. it was those last few books that he was currently using for his research and practice.

Practice went on as usual, having planned the week with the use of Charms and older spells, so that he could adjust to his new strength. For the coming time he would try and master a sister variation of the Bone-Breaking Curse namely; Splinter-Bone, spoken as 'Os Festucam', which was one of the few available spells he had found in the books from the Room of Requirements.

He would soon have to either search for new means of getting Dark spells or start working on other areas like Transfiguration and Charms, which served their own good in battle and might also serve him good.

He stopped in front of an expensive looking door with a gleaming nameplate which had 'Horace Slughorn's office' written on it.

He took a deep breath and sighed before knocking three times, having to wait for only a single second as he heard Slughorn call out to him.

"Just a moment m'boy!"

The door swung open and the jovial Professor stood in front of him , smiling broadly as he twirled his moustache. "Please come in Harry, have a seat, we have much to discuss!"

Harry entered the office of the new potions Professor for the first time and took a look around; it showed little allegiance to any house, being coloured in red and brown colours for the majority on its walls and furniture. The walls were decorated with books, posters, gifts, portraits, rare items and autographs from famous witches and wizards, some of which he recognized.

At the back of the office stood his desk, papers neatly stacked upon each other, multiple gadgets decorating it as he saw a spinning clock with five pointers and what looked to be like a miniature solar system, its looping glowing balls representing the planets.

To the left was a fireplace with a few comfortable looking couches and armchairs positioned in front of it. seated in one of them was Greengrass, looking shocked to see him enter the office as the glass that she held delicately in her hand seemed to be frozen to her lips as she probably had just been about to tip it.

"You still going to drink that?" He asked after another moment of seeing her stare at him.

"I-uh-yes." She said, scrambling a bit for words before chugging the glass down, elegance forgotten.

"Now as each of you know, you are here because you are to serve detention, however what students do during said detention is not defined by the school regulations. The teacher may freely choose as to how the time will be spend in those detentions." Slughorn started, feeling the need to justify his actions before continuing as he clasped Harry by the shoulder again.

"Now, Harry, make yourself comfortable and have a seat!" He said guiding Harry towards the armchair Greengrass was sitting him and pushed him down beside her.

Harry had to note here that said chair was spacious for one person but a bit of a tight fit for two people as he immediately felt Greengrass's soft and warm body next to his. His heartrate increased of the sudden physical contact with his partner and he tried to not think too much of it.

He and Greengrass had plenty of close ups during their weeks-months of partnership, especially during potions where the tables were small and everything was positioned close to each other. However those moments were short, unintentional and during other activities such as brewing a potion and fighting ferocious plants. This was anything but those cases and served to make it feel very different.

He tried to give her more space by leaning away in a modest and polite way. Which didn't help much in the end as the cushion simply sank both of them in the same direction as she herself made no move to lean towards her own end.

He looked longingly at the couch next to him, only to have his hopes crushed as the Professor seated himself in it, taking such a posture that he covered two seats, which didn't even look all that comfortable to hold.

"Care for a drink Harry? firewhisky, butterbeer, wine?" Slughorn asked, gesturing to the drinks on the table nearby, either mightily oblivious to his state of discomfort or choosing to completely ignore it.

"No thank you professor." He said resolutely keeping his head turned away to avoid making eye contact with his partner as he could practically feel her eyes pry into his back.

"Now, for tonight we will be discussing multiple important things which apply for all of us, but first of all; we will rid ourselves of unnecessary formalities, you may call me Slughorn or Horace. I hope that you will do the same for each other, surely such a thing means little now; you have been close partners for weeks- nearly months now." The potions Professor said, smiling encouragingly.

"Yes..Slughorn." Harry brought out a bit difficult, knowing that it would be another small step towards a lasting connection.

"Of course, Horace." Greengrass said, finding it less difficult to apply the change, already having seen and spoken with Slughorn for extended periods of time during their Club.

"Forgive me for already having dropped such formalities with the both of you beforehand, it happened quite easily and unknowingly after some time you see." Slughorn said as he poured himself a drink.

"No insult was taken, Horace. It can be easily forgotten after our Club meetings and lessons." Greengrass spoke out beside him in a understanding way.

"Indeed it is, and thank you." Slughon replied, taking a sip before suddenly thrusting his finger up as a thought seemingly shot through him, his drink spilling a bit. "Speaking of the Club!"

Harry did his best to restrain himself from groaning out loud, why did you have to say those words, Greengrass? He glanced at her for the first time since he had been seated and saw her smiling innocently at him.

She did that on purpose!

He looked back to see Slughorn lean forward, his belly being squeezed by his legs. "Slug Club, Harry! This is the perfect moment to plan some dates in on which you will be able to come, Daphne will undoubtedly enjoy your company, I can see how well you two can get along!" Slughorn said, smiling.

"Yes, absolutely." He said stiffly, casting the most accusing look at her he could possibly muster, maybe poking her a bit strongly as he _rearranged_ his elbow.

She jerked from the contact to her side, but quickly recovered and acted like nothing had happened, looking smug all the time.

"Let's see, Harry..how about 2 weeks from now on a Tuesday evening?" Slughorn asked.

"I will likely be busy on my homework from DADA during those days." Harry excused.

"I see, a busy man you are indeed. Wednesday then, Harry?" Slughorn continued.

"Charms lessons and homework that will need to be finished for Transfiguration." Harry excused again.

"How dreadful, Harry, Thursday then?" Slughorn continued undeterred.

"Busy with-" He began only to be cut off by Greengrass.

"-Nothing! He'll be busy with doing nothing at all, he'll be happy to come. The date can be set for the other members, Horace." Greengrass filled in for him, saying all the wrong things.

He silently began jabbing at her again with his elbow, her own arm expertly blocking his strikes.

"Wonderful, I guess that it is only logical for you to know your partners agenda so well!" Slughorn exclaimed, happy about their set date.

"There will be two more Clubs after that, four and six weeks from now on, will Thursdays suffice again?" Slughorn asked excitedly.

"Consider it set in stone, Horace. The same can be said for the Christmas party." Greengrass replied before Harry could open his mouth.

"Fantastic, with those things taken care of we can move on to the next item of discussion, said item has just been mentioned; the Christmas party." Slughorn said, continuing, oblivious to their little battle.

"The Christmas party is about 2 months away now, important people young and old will be coming and things will need to be prepared and set up in an appropriate way for both of them. I myself will easily know what to do for the seniors." Slughorn said, and Harry could practically feel the 'but ' coming.

"But?" Greengrass voiced for him as they had stopped jabbing each other to listen.

"The problem is that I find myself clueless as to what would be more attractive and interesting to the juniors; their daughters and sons, people of your age, not to mention students from Hogwarts itself will be coming with their dates." Slughorn explained to them.

"Aren't there people you could hire?" Harry questioned, surely there were some people for this in the wizarding world.

"There are, but I found myself much more comfortable with the thought of my two best students helping me with this. Not to mention that you are in Hogwarts with your fellow students in the here and now, giving you the best intuition and inspiration for the appropriate choices." Slughorn finished, twirling his moustache as he looked at them hopefully.

Harry quickly opened his mouth to decline, knowing it was a race with Greengrass next to him. "I-"

"-A brilliant idea, Horace!" Greengrass called out through his own declination. "A Gryffindor and Slytherin working together to organize a party that would fit all of the houses and its students."

"Marvelous! I very much appreciate your help, feel free to call me in for a favor should you ever need it!" Slughorn spoke, elated.

"You're welcome, Horace, I'll be giving you updates on the state of progress periodically." Greengrass said, looked quite pleased with herself.

He didn't bother to jab or interject her. He slouched in his side of the chair as he wished that he had been able to serve detention with Snape.

"I'm glad that we were able to work all these things out, for all of us; myself for arrangements of the party, Harry to be able to join us, and Daphne to get Harry to join the Slug Club!" Slughorn cheerfully concluded.

"Sorry what was the last part Slughorn?" Harry asked, looking up at hearing the last part.

"Hm?..Oh, yes, Daphne wanted you join our club meetings for a while now Harry, always asking me whether or not I was able to invite you! Quite endearing is it not?" Slughorn said, laughing a bit at the end.

He turned to Greengrass, her cheeks a bit red. "That so, Greengrass?"

"Now, now, Harry. Have you forgotten the beginning of our conversation? Your partner deserves more." Slughorn reprimanded slightly.

Harry frowned a bit, thinking about what he meant before realizing. "Your right, let me rephrase; is that so, Daphne?" Seeing her lips tug into a small smile as he spoke her name.

"Don't flatter yourself..Harry. I merely wanted my partner for some casual talk. We already got along well enough during our lessons at the time." She deflected, taking the smallest of moments herself to speak his name.

"Now if you excuse me, I have some business to attend to." Slughorn said, standing up.

"What about the rest of our detention?" Harry asked, surprised by his sudden leave.

"The rest of your detention will be about..thinking over your sins for earning said detention! I will return before detention ends, you both are not to move from your seats." Slughorn said, as he cheerfully added ridiculous conditions, and closed the door behind him.

A short silence ensued, and Harry was quickly becoming aware of their proximity again.

"Slughorn is good enough of a person, but I'm not complying to stupid conditions. I'll move to the couch." He said, moving to stand up.

A grip on his robs tugged him back into his side of the seat again. "Don't, Harry. We won't know when he will return. It's a simple condition, nothing major." She pointed out.

"..I guess." Was all he responded with, slowly settling back in, his side getting warmed again by her.

"Is it so bad? I'm I that revolting?" She asked, sounding a bit hurt.

He turned to face her. "Not at all Daphne, you're plenty-" He quickly caught himself and stopped after seeing the look in her eyes...he should have known by now..

"Plenty what Harry?" She asked, still imitating the hurt in her voice and face. Her eyes however shone with amusement, telling him all he needed to know; she was fishing for compliments again.

"Plenty slimy." He finished without remorse. Earning himself an elbow.

"Liar." She said, sour at being discovered.

He smiled slightly before turning more serious. "Had you planned this all along Daphne? That we would both be here for detention?"

"No, I didn't even know you were coming Harry, I simply used the opportunity to have you join, the Clubs aren't that bad you know." She truthfully said.

"And you would have liked me to come then? You could have asked you know." Harry questioned.

"Yes, Harry, I guess I would have enjoyed your company a bit... But your too much of a hardhead to actually listen for once and try it out. Besides a girl such as me shouldn't have to! I'll have you beg the next time." Daphne said, 'hmpfing' a bit at the last part as she raised her chin a bit higher, revealing to him that pride had been the main problem.

"There was no way you would have escaped the Christmas party anyway, might as well come to the Clubs too then, and with us organizing the Christmas party, it will most likely not turn out to be some boring old man party." She said

"Don't be so sure about the organizing Daphne, I have no idea how to go about it. not to mention that you dragged me in without my consent." He spoke a bit accusingly, having not forgotten her stunts.

"Your right, the organizing is something extra I pulled in, you can leave it to me if you want, Tracey would love to help me come up with ideas." She said, amending her actions a little.

"Thanks, you might not think so but I really am busy." Harry said, sinking into thought as he contemplated his schedule with the new appointments. He could always just extend the time of his training and research to catch up on the time that he would be spending at the Club. It would only be for a few days.

She regarded him for a moment, her blue eyes piercing into his own before eventually replying. "Yeah I'm sure you are."

He refocused again after hearing her voice. "However, not to say that I will abandon it completely, we have to keep up appearances for Slughorn. Besides, I'll also feel bad for making two girls do my job for me, so I'll do what I can." He spoke sincerely.

"So honorable, Harry, I'll look forward to our newly expanded partnership." She said in a fake pompous voice.

Any reply he would have made was halted when the door swung open and Horace stepped back in.

"Ah, good to see that detention has been executed as promised." He said as he saw their positions. "Have you contemplated your wrongdoings?" He asked smiling.

"Many lessons were learned, Horace." Daphne said, speaking complete bogus.

"Yes, Slughorn, it was enlightening." Harry spoke, playing along. Had this really been a detention? They hadn't done any work or chore.

"Good, now then, feel free to come to me if you are in need of anything, otherwise I'll see you two at the next Potions lesson." Slughorn said, already looking forward to it.

Harry rose out of the deep armchair first, having been in a more favorable position to do so before hearing Slughorn speak. "Make sure the lady gets out of her seat easily, Harry." He finished in a suggestive tone when Harry was out of the chair.

Harry turned to Daphne, seeing her look up in amusement, offering her hand to him.

He quickly took her hand before the moment took too long, giving Daphne leverage to get up.

Her ego inflated a bit again as he helped her up and released her hand, the little gesture having made her feel special again.

They moved out of his office, giving their last goodbyes as Slughorn closed the door behind them, ending their detention.

They remained standing at his door before Daphne spoke up.

"I'm going back to my common room now, Harry. I promised to help Tracey with the potions assignment. We'll leave the Christmas party for the first Slug Club, plenty of time left there to discuss things, try to come up with some ideas for it until then. I'll do the same, naturally." Daphne said.

"You sure that there will be enough time left to plan the other things? We will already be two weeks in then." He said, wanting to make sure things would work out for all of them.

"Yes, I'll be working on the smaller and more basic preparations beforehand with Tracey." She said, reassuring him.

He nodded, trusting the planning skills of his partner, having experienced plenty of it during their potion brewing. "Make sure you don't do too much without me."

"Don't worry about me, get a good night's rest yourself. You look tired." She said, her sudden words of care and searching look surprising him a bit.

"Must be because I'm a light sleeper, Ron keeps me up most of the night." He said, smiling a bit and waving it off.

"Sure." She said, her expression unchanging. "Be careful, Harry."

"With what? Sleeping?" He said jokingly to her strange reply.

Daphne smiled a bit, but it seemed strained and the light didn't shine in her blue eyes as it always did, telling him that it was forced. "Yes, we all fall down from our bed sometime, don't we?"

"I daresay its quite dangerous, imagine falling from one of the bunk beds here." He said.

She smiled a bit more truthfully now. "Indeed, see you around, Harry." Daphne said, before turning around and started walking towards her common room some stairs downwards.

"Yeah, see you." He said before she had turned around, taking the smallest of moments to glance at the body that had been warming his side during the detention.

He looked away, finding it inappropriate and began thinking about his training and research for tonight as he turned around, and headed towards the unused classrooms.

He had time to catch up on, and efforts to increase.

* * *

**little note-this chapter starts near the end of chapt 8, where Daphne sees him train. **

**Share your thoughts!**

**Can't say much to the reviewers except that I was happy to read and ponder over your messages. Answering/elaborating anything from you peeps would be spoilers.**

**Lastly I thank you for reading, hope that you enjoyed, and will continue to do so in the future.**


	10. Frozen Luck and Ropes

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter Universe and all the characters belong to J.K. Rowling.

* * *

"Are you sure you will be going, Harry?" Hermione questioned again, unsure.

"Yeah, Harry. Just screw it if you don't want to go." Ron added.

"Yes, guys, I will. Slughorn won't let me run off anyway; he would soon have started invading my dreams if I had avoided him any longer." He said flatly, telling them for the third time as he rolled his eyes.

"I know harry, just wanted to make sure you don't start doing things you hate after being pressed into it by this Daphne. I would have expected that the partner you work so well with, would help you stay out of it, rather than into it." Hermione huffed.

"It's fine, might even have been good for me, I've been judging without actually having experienced it, the Christmas party will also be largely organized by her."

"I guess that's true Harry, and I'm glad that you're reconsidering your opinion of the Club." Hermione said.

"Besides, my words will become justified if it _does_ turn out to be bad." He said, grinning a bit, coming back to his original assumption.

"But don't you find it strange, Harry? Her suddenly roping you in on those things? She might have some other reason besides your 'company'." Ron said, making a gesture of unbelief at his last words.

"Don't act like it was completely out of the blue, Ron. She and I have been on good terms for weeks now. She wanted some conversation at the Club… and was a bit forceful in the undertaking." Harry said, defending Daphne's reasons despite thinking along the same lines as Ron.

"I also could have used some conversation, Harry." Hermione snipped lightly at him.

"Hey, I also probably wouldn't have come if she had asked normally." Harry said, reasoning with her.

"At least I don't have to go alone anymore. " grumbled, Hermione. A bit sour from not managing to convince him herself.

Harry glanced at Ron; expecting insults about the Club to come out at this point, but was surprised to see him mostly unbothered. Being able to the Christmas Party with her had probably helped contain his jealousy.

He turned to Hermione again. "Yeah, it will likely be the moment to introduce you two to each other, Daphne will undoubtedly come to have some chats with me, as she wanted me in there for that reason after all."

"I guess.." Hermione said, not looking very enthusiastic about the prospect. "We haven't really talked yet, I've only spoken a few words with her through Arithmancy, and that was only to borrow something during the lesson."

Hard grass crunched beneath them as they walked out of the castle door, lagging behind the other Gryffindors to the greenhouse, chilly winds biting through their robes into their skin.

"So it's Daphne now, huh?" Said Ron, noticing Harry's words and looking conflicted. "You'll start attracting attention again at this rate Harry, people can accept it for a class assignment, but will look up differently if you start being friendly outside in the open."

"Which is exactly what the masses did here throughout my entire school career; it doesn't matter if they make a problem out of it. I'll blow over, just like how I was aspiring to be the new Dark Lord until becoming their blessed savior and 'Chosen one' until recently." Harry spoke with some degree of resentment sounding through his voice as they both dimmed a bit upon his words.

"Say, Harry..about this 'Chosen One-" Hermione began.

"-So you guys have managed to find some common ground? You're fighting a lot less lately, actually getting along very well these days." He interrupted, asking a question that would surely catch them off-guard.

"W-What? Ah, well, yes. I guess we are huh." Hermione said, flustered, stumbling on her words at bit at the beginning.

"We can spend the day without fighting every minute of it, thank you very much." Ron mumbled from his side.

"Hurry up inside, class will start!" Professor Sprout called out to them, herself and the Slytherins having already entered the greenhouse.

They picked up the pace for the last meters, glad that they wouldn't have to wait outside, and shot inside the greenhouse.

A blast of warmth hit them, the smell of fertile ground and wet plants assaulting their noses as they entered.

The first thing he noticed was the large square shaped object in the back of the greenhouse, only leaving them to guess what it could be as a large cloth covered it. From beneath the cloth however, traveled a steady stream of white smoke before dispersing.

He saw Malfoy standing of to the side, quietly conversing with Nott in hushed whispers, looking the same as other times; tired.

Nott was listening intently to him, a serious look on his face as he nodded every few seconds in response.

He had idly kept an eye on Malfoy during the weeks, watching for any signs, but he didn't see much despite his quiet behavior, which was only more suspicious looking to him. However, Malfoy didn't seem to have been doing anything at all this year.

But still...something was off. Different.

He saw Daphne between the other Slytherins listening halfheartedly as Davis talked to her in a volume that kept it private to them. She soon rolled her eyes and sighed as Davis snorted in laughter about something she herself said.

He saw that the Slytherins had been inside for some time, their heavy robes having been discarded from the warm temperatures of the greenhouse.

He and the other Gryffindors also started moving out of their winter robes as class was starting and the heat began to settle in on them.

"Now class." Their Professor said, clapping once in her hands to get their attention. "Today I can inform you that we will not be working with the Dragon's Bane as they are currently undergoing their first phase change; shedding their old flower and preparing new ones."

The class cheered up considerably upon hearing this news, a lesson without frenzied vines was a good one.

"Next week will the shedding be complete. But that's then and now we find ourselves with our hands empty." Sprout explained before moving towards the large cloth-covered square.

"So for this lesson we will busy ourselves with a flower that is both harmless and helpful, said plant is also hard to grow as it is very delicate, and difficult to seed. However, consider much of the hard work done once it is successfully seeded." Professor Sprout said to them as she whipped the cloth back.

Harry had already grown curious after hearing her introduction, for it sounded like this lesson actually contained something that wasn't set of choking the life out of them.

He saw multiple items; all of them in blue and white colours after she had pulled the cloth back. Blocks of ice stood upon each other along with pots that contained what seemed to be crystallized earth, making him realize that he had seen condense trailing down the cloth at the start of the lesson. On top of the blocks stood a small transparent sack with small powder blue dots inside it.

"We will be planting the Constringitur Fortuna, otherwise known as; Frozen Luck. It is similar to the Felix Felicis which grants luck for a period of time at the cost of giddiness, recklessness and dangerous overconfidence if taken in excess. Not to mention that it is very difficult to make, disastrous even." Sprout explained to them; refreshing their knowledge on the Liquid Luck potion.

"The Constringitur Fortuna will grant the same effects, however, in lessened effect as the plant, in comparison to the potion equivalent; is significantly easier to obtain. However, do not be fooled, underestimating the potting will surely make you fail here."

She picked up the small sack and held it up in front of the class. "These are the seeds." She said, holding up the small bag in front of them to see before gesturing to the blocks of ice behind her. "These are the ice blocks which contain pure glacial water, and lastly; the crystallized snow."

"We will begin by breaking through the outer layer of the ice blocks. You might think this to be easy; but rest assured that it won't be."

"The blocks will freeze anything they come on contact with; they are called Frostbite blocks for this very reason." Sprout said as she lightly touched one of the blocks with a red flower, which was frozen solid after a second of making contact.

"Be careful not to work too long with it; your hands will freeze after the cold has seeped into your tools and gloves, this is no pleasant experience, believe me. Don't go too fast, invent ways with your partner to bypass the nasty frost effects.

"You will have to rely on your partner to keep up the pressure on the blocks to prevent them from recovering themselves and freezing your hands."

"Yes, Miss Davis?"

"Uhm, Professor what do you mean by 'recovering'?" Asked Davis, having raised her hand at the end of Sprout's explanation.

"Oh, yes. Good that you ask, I had almost forgotten; the Frostbite blocks will start to regenerate to their original state after being damaged and left alone for a while."

"So we have unlimited tries then? We can just drop it when the cold becomes too much and start over again?" Davis asked again.

"Only in a sense as the regeneration will set in after a set amount of time following its first signs of damage. The glacial water will grow more contaminated with each effort and attempt you undertake, which decreases its quality and your chance of successfully growing the flower."

"Still following me?" They nodded and mumbled their understanding. "The water inside the blocks will need to be poured inside the Constringitur Fortuna seeds after you both manage to break open the ice cube. One of you two will quickly move to hold the seed open while the other pours the water inside before time runs out."

"Act too slow and your block will regenerate; decreasing the chance of growing the plant the next time you do manage to pour it in, act too hastily and you'll likely spill the small amounts of glacial water you have, vanishing your chances entirely."

"The hard part will be over after this, however, be sure to plant the seed inside the crystallized earth as soon as you can by holding the sand aside with your tools while your partner embeds the seed. Act in unison again as the crystallized sand will not work in your favor, and will instantly try to close the hole you made."

"Any questions left? Yes Miss Granger?" Sprout asked Hermione as her hand shot up.

"Suppose we succeed in planting it; what further care does the plant need? When will we be able to use it and how?" Hermione asked, firing off multiple important questions that spiked their curiosity as well.

"Constringitur Fortuna will require no further care after successfully being seeded; nourishment comes from within the crystallized sand and glacial water inside the seed. The time of its blooming always fluctuates, for some people it comes after a few weeks, others months. Rest assured however that the flower will not die after blooming. It will stay healthy until picked from the sand."

"Picking and wearing the flower will allow its affects to influence you, making it more of a woman's thing. Males however can easily hide it beneath their clothes of course. Said effects will last for a period of time, depending entirely on the quality of the seeding. You can expect a few hours averagely."

"Now!" She said, clapping her gloved hands once, a cloud of dried sand spewing out from them. "Leave the discussion on who will be getting the plant to a later stage; you should first manage to pot it, before speaking of the ownership. Enough talking, let's get started!"

"Good luck, guys." Harry said as he moved away from them to his partner, seeing Hermione formulate plans in her head as Ron also walked off to his partner, looking determined.

He focused his search to a blonde ponytail and quickly found her between the shifting students; standing ready at the same table they used every lesson.

He silently stopped next to her, already thinking about how they were going to go about the various tasks as eager and pushy students at the back of the greenhouse collected their seeds, pots and blocks, running back to their table as the latter began to freeze their gloves and hands.

"So.." She began, not moving in to join the other students yet. "Want to do a Rock-Paper-Scissor now, or after we potted it?"

His lips tugged upwards a bit. There it was again; complete confidence in their yet to be achieved success. Questioning _who_ would be getting it, instead of _if_ they would be getting it.

"We still need to begin Daphne, but you can have it if the scenario happens. I don't fancy wearing a flower in my hair with a spring in my step."

"Don't give me stupid reasons, you just heard her say that you could just hide it underneath your clothes." She said, as they began to move towards the last remaining materials.

"I'll make sure to hide it between my butt-cheeks then." Harry dryly responded.

Daphne cracked a smile. "A very secure spot if I do say so myself, but really now. Are you fine with it?"

"Yes, I've had my fair share of luck already." Harry said, thinking about the near-death encounters throughout his life. "'Shallow men believe in luck or in circumstance. Strong men believe in cause and effect', I like to believe in that; lest my luck evaporate when I begin to lean on it."

"I see.." Was all she said, blue eyes glancing at him before picking up the last seed and pot as he grabbed the last remaining block.

"Don't mind me helping you by taking it off your hands then. "Daphne spoke, her greedy nature coming out as they began to walk back to their table.

"Say, how do you reckon we go about the breaking and potting? Should I give some sign? Or say-"

"- We will both hit the outer layer at timed intervals, afterwards you will pour it in while I hold the seed open." Daphne calmly cut through.

"I'll also hold the sand off while you plant it then?" Harry asked, absentmindedly trading his block for her pot and seed to allow his gloves to melt the ice off before it reached his hands underneath.

"Yeah, it will probably require some muscle effort." Daphne said, agreeing with him.

"Oh? Isn't that something that'll fit your-argh! Stop it, that's cold as fuck!" Harry cursed as she had briefly held the cube against his exposed elbow before he could finish, turning it ice cold within milliseconds.

"Language, Potter!" Professor Sprout called out to him after hearing him swear.

"Yes, Professor!" He called out back, glaring at Daphne, who begun to strut a bit.

"Gimme that." He said, grumbling, switching the weapon out of her hands, seeing that her gloves were mostly frozen by now.

"But seriously, after breaking it open should I tell where I would probably-"

"No, Harry, just roll with it." Daphne cut through again, acting as though it wasn't necessary at all to plan it through.

"Just..roll with it?" Harry asked perplexed as she waved it off. "Aren't you the Slytherin here? You're acting a bit Gryffindorish with this kind of setup beforehand."

"This is ambition leading, not an unthoughtful-charge-through plan. The finer details are unnecessary." Daphne huffed, setting down the materials she was carrying.

"Don't blame me if everything fails." He spoke, dropping the cube with a thud next to the seed and pot on their table. Relieving himself of the cold contact.

"You'll owe me one if I'm right." She said, challenging him.

"Sure, but you do realize I could botch it up on purpose right? It's not my flower." Harry questioned, raising one of his eyebrows as their classmates had begun to hack into the ice cube.

"You wouldn't do that to poor me, Harry, you would give it your all regardless." Daphne said, knowingly. Raising an eyebrow in return.

"Oh wow, you know me through and through." He said sarcastically before shifting to the work in front of them. "Anyway let's get started, everyone has already begun."

Daphne took a quick look around, replying in a noncommittal voice. "I guess we should, finishing early on will likely earn us some credits."

"_If_ we finish early." Harry said, correcting her. as he grabbed two small hand shovels, giving one to her and keeping one for himself.

"No, no. _When_ we finish early, Harry." Daphne said, holding true to her confidence, her eyes showing joy in the challenge.

"Right, right. Whatever you say." Harry said, not entirely convinced but relenting nonetheless.

He saw her standing in a position that told him she was ready to begin. He nodded once at her and pulled his arm back before bringing the blade of his shovel down on the cube. Creating a small cut on the frozen surface.

He quickly pulled his shovel back again, wanting the least amount of contact with it and giving Daphne more room as she brought down her own shovel after he had retracted.

They silently continued this rhythm until a decent cut ran across the exterior. Their shovels and gloves, however, were mostly frozen by now as the winter chill began to prickle onto their skin.

"I'll keep hitting it, you warm up meanwhile." Harry said to her, to which she quickly pulled out her wand and began heating up her shovel and glove as he kept pressuring the block with strikes.

"You still ok?" Daphne asked after half a minute had passed with her heating up and Harry repeatedly hitting the block.

"I'm fine." He said, no longer feeling his skin prickle and bite from the cold, meaning that frostbite was beginning to set in.

"Yeah right, your shovel and glove are frozen together; you need to ready yourself for the next part." Daphne said, moving in his place to start stabbing the cube herself.

"Just say so if it becomes too cold." Harry said, moving away to separate the shovel from his glove as he tried to wrench them apart by using his knees. Warming it up with his wand in the other hand

"No need, we're nearly through the layer." She said, as a final crack from the block sounded, signaling that they had broken through as crystal clear water shone inside.

Daphne quickly moved to the small seed, throwing both of her gloves off as he wrenched the shovel free from his half frozen glove.

She used her fingers to peel open the shell like seed while he grabbed the cube, holding it up in a position to pour it in.

"I'm ready, Harry!" She said, holding the small seed open for him.

He hesitates, the shape of the block made it difficult to tell where the water would land and his gloved hands were rapidly freezing up through the prolonged contact.

He spilled a small stream down, missing her opened seed. He soon lowered the rest of the stream down as he was losing control of his frozen arms, Daphne's however, had shifted the seed to where he had spilled his initial drops and caught most of the glacial water that now fell down, letting it flow down into the seed.

"The sand, Harry." Daphne said, letting the seed snap shut as she grabbed the pot and put it down in front of them.

Harry, despite his hands being slow and weak, grabbed both of their shovels, and stabbed them into the crystallized sand, hearing it crunch and resist him when he pushed it aside.

Daphne quickly pushed the seed onto the bottom of the pot and retracted her hands, allowing him to release the pressure he kept on the sand by pulling the shovels out. Instantly letting it slide back to its original state, not showing any signs of being disturbed.

"Well." Harry said, his breathing audible from the effort as he flopped his frozen gloves off his hands and onto the table with a crunch. "I guess I owe you one.."

"The first of many to come, no doubt about that." She responded, grinning while flipping her hair at him, basking in the glow of victory.

He briefly smelled flowers other than those in the greenhouse as her hair whipped past him. "You have no limits do you?"

"My limits know me well enough to stay out of my way." Daphne said, ego inflated and eyes alight again; waiting for him to respond.

"Excellent work you two, twenty points for Gryffindor and Slytherin!" Professor Sprout said, vanishing his reply and coming up to their table. "I must compliment you two on a job well done, your team work was natural and flowed right from the moment you collected your materials to the embedding of the seed."

"I'm sure your efforts will be rewarded with a healthy flower, there were hardly any mistakes made, very commendable for a first try. Your classmates however, are still in the middle of their lesson, I must ask you to wait until lesson ends." Their Professor said before moving back to help others in the class.

Harry said nothing, knowing that it would soon come.

"You said something about not finishing early, did you not? Forgive me, my memory is a bit hazy." Daphne said, feigning ignorance.

He sat down on the bench behind them, watching their other classmates struggle. "Don't know for sure either. Must be my drawbacks for being a Gryffindor showing up."

"Don't worry, I forgive you, I'm just that kind of a person." She said, sitting down next to him, luckily not overly so like their detention, but still closer than two people normally would, more like Ron and Hermione had been last week.

"Lucky me." Harry said, emotionlessly as he watched everyone mess up with handling the Frostbite block. Hermione and Bulstrode mostly failed to read each other's movements and clumsily hit the block at random intervals, Hermione mostly trying to do things herself. The rhythm causing the block to regenerate and their hands to freeze, forcing them to stop and begin at the beginning.

He was surprised, however, to see Ron and Davis booking the most progress on breaking the block aside from him and Daphne.

Ron was hacking in like a madman and Davis was warming his hands in the brief moments he passed her wand at the cube.

"Not saying I don't feel happy for them, but I never expected Ron and Davis to be making the most progress here." Harry said, voicing his thoughts.

"They did manage to brew something during our last Potion lessons." Daphne spoke, indicating that there had been progress in the making.

"Maybe Ron is slowly having second thoughts about people from Slytherin." He said just as he saw Ron and Davis break through the outer layer, scrambling to get the seed ready before the cube regenerated.

"You don't really have a choice with Tracey." Daphne said, experience sounding in her voice.

"Really? How so?" He asked, curious to knowing a bit about Daphne's friend and Ron's partner.

"She's just weird, her jokes are bad, and acts nothing like a Slytherin should, but she's a good person from start to end." She said, insulting and complimenting her friend at the same time.

"She must be a good and easy going person indeed, Ron must have been a pain to deal with; especially in the beginning. He's biased against Slytherins and very hardheaded, bad combinations to work with." Harry said, watching Ron spill most of the cube's contents next to the seed, managing to get a little inside before it snapped shut. Davis looking happy nonetheless.

"He made plenty of mistakes but has his heart in the right place." Harry said, thinking about his ups and down with Ron through the years.

"Hm, and Granger? She's a bit of an all knower during classes. You like that?" Daphne asked, looking at Hermione's struggle with Bulstrode to time their actions accordingly.

"Hermione is simply very passionate about magic and the lessons about it, often wanting to help others and ending up coming across as snobbish and pedantic, but above all she's been an iron pillar throughout my life. She's very important to me." Harry spoke, truthfully.

"Huhh.. really.." Daphne said, drawing out her words.

"Okay class, time's up! Gather around." Sprout called out to them, ending their conversation as they stood up from the bench and walked towards the Professor.

"Those who succeeded can bring their Frozen Luck with them, I wish to commend Mr. Potter and Miss Greengrass on their excellent display of planting it. Mr. Weasley and Miss Davis too, you have shown new efforts and made more progress, your plant will not be the best but will surely grow. For the others; good luck next time." Professor Sprout said, complimenting and encouraging them.

"Are there any other questions before the lesson ends?" Sprout asked of them, looking around the class. "Miss Granger?"

"Yes, Professor. I was wondering when the Dragon's Bane enters the stage of exhaling its fumes? It is not mentioned in the books."

"This is because circumstances such as heat, sunlight, water, nutrition, and care affect the time it needs to grow. The flower that is going to bloom soon will signal the fume stage, I estimate this to be in a few weeks." Professor Sprout said, making the class quietly talk among themselves again.

"Anything else, no? Until next week then, dismissed."

"Last chance for a Rock-Paper-scissors, Harry." Daphne said, nudging the pot in her arms.

"Thank you for being thoughtful but you can keep it." Harry said, declining her offer again.

"Hmpf, I merely wanted to take it from you anyway by winning three out of three." She said, playfully taunting him.

"How do you even know about Rock paper scissors in the first place? Doesn't seem very Pureblood to me." Harry asked, wondering.

"Tracey is a Half-blood, she told me about it. anyway I'll see you around, Harry." Daphne said, walking off to find Davis.

Harry could only shake his head as he also turned to find his friends, finding a disappointed Hermione and conflicted Ron.

"So you managing to win the flower, Ron? Did some quick Rock-Paper-scissors with Davis?" Harry asked, seeing him holding the pot.

"Huh? Uhm, no. She gave it to me.. 'a gesture of goodwill'." Ron said, quoting her words. Looking confused.

"That's really kind of her, maybe not all Slytherins have bad intentions, hmm?. She couldn't have done anything to it as you've been there the whole time, plus it's a plant that brings luck, not much harm it could do on its own right?" Harry said in a completely unveiled tone, trying to make Ron see the logic.

"Yeah, I guess." Ron muttered distracted, looking at the spot where the seed likely lay; hidden underneath the crystallized sand.

Harry left him to his thoughts and turned to Hermione, seeing her look up to Ron, hoping that he would see the light.

"Sorry that you didn't have your chance at getting one of the flowers, Hermione." He said, catching her attention.

"Don't be, Harry. it's simply frustrating not being able to perform these partner based assignments well, but Bulstrode and I might find some balance someday. Hopefully." Hermione said, expressing her thoughts on their lessons.

"I can understand that, maybe you should try some things out with Bulstrode, see what she can and cannot do and adjust to those rules. You're currently trying to do nearly everything yourself, let her do things she might be good in and trust her on that." He said, offering advice.

"You're right, I'll see what I can do about it." Hermione said, finding new goals for their next lesson.

* * *

How long had it been since she had last been here, two weeks? Yeah probably, for two long weeks she had pondered, for two long weeks had she waited, stopping her legs from walking off to this particular door, rather opting to watch Harry and the people around him for any signs that indicated whether or not they were aware, his teachers nor his friends seemed to be.

He showed no signs of sharing his experiences either, he didn't talk to his friends anymore in hushed whispers, huddling together to keep their business private like she had seen him do in their previous years from time to time.

Harry didn't shoot looks of suspicion to them as Malfoy passed, looking only distracted for a moment by his thoughts before returning to whatever they had been doing.

Likewise did his friends not seem concerned about his use of Dark spells. No, more like they didn't _know_.

She peeked through the hole again to observe Harry Potter, seeing red flashes as his spells impacted into the pillars, crumbling it to small pieces.

He wasn't using the Bone-Breaking, but something close to it in power and effect. It had a similar red colour but was a tint darker and pulverized the stone of the pillars, rather than breaking blocks off like last time.

He had begun moving through the room as he fired the spell off, intend on breaking every pillar that stood in the room.

She felt strangely uncomfortable when he had turned around for the first time during his practice, allowing her to see his face.

His face looked to be strained from his efforts most of the time, but gained the ghost of a smirk whenever one of his spells impacted particularly hard against a pillar. The silencing from his Charms adding a detached atmosphere to it.

She found herself not very fond of it, it was different from the one during their detention and lessons. Consisting of grim satisfaction and mild interest in the damage he was causing, instead of amusement and humor.

She began to back away from the door, not wanting to have a repeat of last time where she had been too late in leaving.

She nearly jumped out of her skin however, as the loud sound of glass breaking reverberated through the hallway two times.

She whipped her head around to see that a bludger had crashed through one of the windows and left the corridor again through another.

"The hell was that, Peakes?! You trying to get a Professor angry and have us end practice? Aim a bit more! That was completely out of the pitch!" A voice she recognized as the youngest female Weasley shouted.

She didn't linger and bolted into action, knowing that he would be coming to have a look.

* * *

Harry had just broken another pillar with his Bone-Splintering Curse before hearing the crashes of two large windows breaking from the hallway close to his classroom. His suspicion reached new heights however, when he heard a voice followed by a pair of rapid footsteps from the corridor.

Was someone there? Why would anyone be here?

He quickly moved towards to door and swung it open, his wand out and ready.

He saw out of the corner of his eyes a figure sprinting down the corridor, not too far away from him he acted instantly and send his spells flying, intend on stopping him.

His feet freezing charm hit first, halting the escape of the perpetrator before being hit by his body bind, which he had cast afterwards immediately.

The figure promptly fell on the ground, struggling in vain for a few seconds before relenting.

He advanced on the person, realizing that it had been a female after hearing her squeak from falling down and seeing the shape of the body.

Said body shape was very familiar and he was soon staring down at the face of Daphne Greengrass after she was done twisting her body around.

"Uh, hey there, Harry. Mind releasing me?" She asked, trying to sound casual through her heavy breathing as she lay on the ground.

He looked down upon her tied down position. "Don't know, maybe I like my girls tied up. Those ropes look pretty good on you."

"Of course, anything looks good on me." She said, managing to flaunt even from her bound position.

"But seriously now..Why are you here?" He asked, not moving in to release her, nor lowering his wand.

"It's a shortcut I use to get to the library, Harry. I don't like the crowded hallways." She said, sounding truthful.

'Lies!'

The word sounding through his head was confident and cautioning, surprising him and making him almost look around to check where the voice had come from before realizing what it had been.

He looked back to her neutral expression and decided to ask a few more questions. Having second thoughts about her explanation.

"There are other ways to the library which are less crowded. Why take this one, the longer and more unknown way?" He asked.

"This one is completely deserted, plus I only know of a few ways to get to the library. This was one of them." Daphne answered.

"Why did you suddenly run, Daphne? Looking to be in quite the panic to me while you were at it." He questioned, moving on from the previous questions.

"You scared the shit out of me, suddenly bursting out of the classroom like that!" Daphne said, indignant.

"You jump when you get scared Daphne, you don't start running like the wind, not you.. no, you knew full well that I was here." Harry spoke.

"Don't be absurd, Harry. I was merely passing through here to get to the library, like I told you earlier. Besides I simply jumped into action when I saw a figure burst out of the classroom with a wand at the ready." Daphne said, acting as though this was all unnecessary.

He lowered his guard a bit, starting to believe her, maybe it really had been a weird chance of meeting.

"The floor is quite cold and hard, Harry. May I stand up again?" She asked, sounding as uncomfortable as it probably was.

"Yeah, sorry." Was all he said, undoing the body bind, helping Daphne up to her feet by taking her offered hand.

'Deception, trickery, treachery!'

His guard went up again as the accusing words rang through his head, every word sounding hard and punctuated.

He gripped her hand, not releasing her and narrowing his eyes as hers widened in surprise.

"No, the chances are too small, the detour is too long, and your reaction was too different from what it normally would have been." He said, not letting go of her hand.

"Besides, you began running after the glass shattered, not after I came out of the classroom." Harry said, poking holes in her story as he moved closer to her.

"Where is Tracey, Daphne? Surely you two would go to the library together." He said, sounding casual, his face close to Daphne's as her back hit the wall behind her.

"I had forgotten my quill and parchment, and was heading back to retrieve them from my common room, Harry. Come on no need to be this suspicious." She said, the slightest anxiety in her voice.

"No, I think I should be, for you can easily ask for some quill and parchment in the library from Madam Pince." Harry said, boring his eyes into hers.

"I rather didn't ask her, she's a bit creepy you know?" Daphne said with a nervous laugh, her blue eyes avoiding his.

Harry didn't laugh. "Don't lie to me, Daphne."

Her lips thinned and she looked to be relenting. "Fine, Harry. I'll tell, don't treat me like a criminal."

"Depends on how you go about explaining yourself." Harry said, releasing her hand and moving away from her face, making her relax a bit.

"Now tell me, truthfully. What were you doing here in this particular hallway?"

She sighed and drooped her shoulders a bit. "I came to observe you Harry."

"You mean to spy on me." He said, correcting her before a thought ran through him. "How did you find me?"

"I simply followed you Harry, I saw you pass by at the intersection some way back." Daphne said simply.

"Really now?" He said, feigning surprise before deadpanning the next words. "Please elaborate on how you've been able to follow someone who wasn't visible from the start to begin with."

"Your disillusionment wasn't perfect, Harry. I could still see where you were going when you moved." Daphne quickly added to her explanation.

"Stop trying, Daphne. I know that you're lying." He said accusingly, knowing she could not have seen him at all, for he had started moving under his cloak after his run in with Snape. Meaning that she had found him using some other method or followed him before he had started using his cloak to get to the practice classroom.

"Okay, fine!" Daphne said, frustrated, throwing her hands up.

"I followed you two weeks ago, after we had our lesson about the Love potion antidote. I saw you at the intersection to the library, talking to your friends before separating." Daphne said, beginning her explanation.

"I soon lost track of where you went but managed to narrow my choices down and searched most of the classrooms. I saw you casting spells at the pillars, destroying them. It's also the reason for earning my detention, it became quite late and I was found." Daphne said, giving an explanation that seemed to be the truth."

"Where was Davis in this? Was she with you this time?" He asked.

"No, Tracey found her own interest and wasn't particularly keen on following you in the first place. We met up much later again." She clarified.

"Why did you follow me in the first place, that something you do to all of your friends?" He questioned, wanting to know why she had done so.

She smiled a bit. "I'm friends with the great Harry Potter then?"

"Answer the question." He said, resolutely to which her smile dropped a bit.

"I had grown curious after hearing bits of your conversation with your friends back then in the hallway, but most of the reasons must have come from the Hogsmeade trip." Daphne said, looking to be confessing as she began fiddling her thumbs.

"Hogsmeade?" He said before thinking about his run in with Mundungus. "You heard?"

"I uh, yeah, we were right around the corner, pretty much heard everything of it… same can be said for everything else inside the Three Broomsticks, but don't blame Tracey too much! it had mostly been my doing.." Daphne said a little red, at least having the decency to be ashamed of her actions afterwards.

Harry fell silent, thinking about everything she had heard during their trip, wondering whether or not it would be enough to identify Sirius. But soon moved his thoughts away as it didn't matter much anyway, Sirius was dead, and no longer in hiding he thought bitterly.

"No matter, it's not the most important right now." He said dismissing it. "Back to the topic at hand; you have seen me practice, didn't you?"

"I have; two weeks ago and just now, I also told Tracey the first time. So she also knows." Daphne said, tensing a bit.

"I can assume that you recognized the spells?" Harry asked.

"Yes they're from the Dark arts. I identified the Bone-Breaking Curse. The spell you were using this time not however." She said, quietly.

"So what now, Daphne? No one was meant to find out, at least not until much later where it couldn't be avoided anymore. But here we are, right at the beginning of things with you and Davis knowing. The teachers and the masses finding out will focus attention back to having another 'Dark Lord' in the making. Or whatever they will make out of it." Harry said, seriously. "How am I to trust you on this after your spying and lying?"

"I-I'll keep it secret, Harry. I won't tell anyone, never planned to either. The three of us can give you an Unbreakable Vow!" She said quickly, looking especially worried after his last words to her.

"What's an Unbreakable Vow?" He said, faltered a bit, wondering what an Unbreakable Vow was. It seemed very serious to her.

"It is as the name implies; an unbreakable promise between witches and wizards, it required two people to make the vows to each other, and one other to serve as Bonder." Daphne explained after a moment of realizing that he didn't know.

"Bonder?" He inquired, asking more details.

"The Bonder will be Tracey if you and I were to go first. The Bonder serves to magically bind the promises to the participants." Daphne elaborated.

"What is the penalty for breaking it?" Harry asked, despite having a faint idea as to what these kind of magical things mostly saw as a fitting punishment.

"Death." Daphne deadpanned, looking him straight in the eye.

"And you would take it? With Davis doing the same?" He asked.

"I would, Tracey isn't going to like it but I'll be able to convince her, besides; there is no danger if we keep silent about it, just as the promise would ask of us." Daphne reassured him.

"I see. Then none will be required." Harry spoke.

"Yes, I'll make sur-huh?" She began before interrupting herself with an unintelligent sound of surprise.

"I said that no Unbreakable Vow will be required since you are so willing to take it. I will trust you with this… Don't make me regret my decision; make sure Davis keeps her silence for you in turn." Harry concluded to her perplexed face.

She stood for a moment before smiling widely, white teeth showing and blue eyes alight, sparkling like water in summer sunlight.

"Consider it set in stone." She replied, repeating her words from their detention with Slughorn.

He smiled a bit and took a look around, seeing that it had become dark again outside and sighed as he knew what he had to do.

"Wait here for a moment." He said, moving back to the classroom and gathered his things, pulling the cloak out of his bag.

He entered the corridor again, seeing her waiting for him expectantly, curious as to what he was doing.

"This," he said holding up the silvery cloak up to her. "is my Invisibility Cloak, it provides perfect cover to anyone underneath it."

"Amazing, perfect invisibility indeed." Daphne muttered as she fingered the material, seeing half of her fingers disappear underneath it.

"It's become late due to our little conversation, you'll likely get caught again so I'll bring you to your common room." Harry said, holding the cloak up.

She took a step closer, allowing him to swing the cloak of them, a thin veil falling over them, giving everything outside a flimsy look.

Daphne smiled in gratitude as she moved a bit closer to him than necessary underneath the cloak, flowers soon making themselves known to him again.

The journey was mostly nonverbal, with him creating a little distance and her closing it every few steps they took, sometimes having to grab her waist to prevent them from being discovered as she purposely moved in the opposite way he was when prefects and teachers came across them, grinning devilishly as she did so.

They soon arrived in the Dungeon Corridor, Harry having let her guide the way for him, not seeing the need to reveal his knowledge of her common room to her.

"Say, are you planning to practice more, to learn more?" Daphne asked softly as they stood in the hallway.

He regarded her searching eyes for a moment. "Yes, Daphne, I am."

"I see..Then I wish inform you on some things about it during the coming Slug Club." She said, moving out from underneath the cloak, looking back at the spot where he stood; invisible to her. "Until then, Harry."

"See you." He softly called out.

* * *

Harry lay in his bed, staring at the ceiling of the dorms, his curtains were drawn around him, they always were; he liked the privacy. Everyone was already sleeping as it had become late again, research hadn't really made any progress again.

Maybe because his thoughts had been distracted, thinking about the conversation he had with Daphne, how he had almost believed her, until the voice had spoken up again. Speaking confident words of doubt at her answers. How did it know that she had been lying?

He still hadn't dreamt about the being again, his nights rather being filled with nightmares than the offsetting entity.

Tonight however would be different for he _wanted _to go back, he had questions and wanted answers only the entity could provide.

He slowly closed his eyes, seeing white enter his vision instead of black.

"You asked for me?" A mixture of a hollow and childish voice sounded as the endless abyss surrounded them again.

"I did. Let's cut to the chase." Harry said, skipping pleasantries. "How did you know that Daphne was lying?"

"_Know_ she was lying? No, Harry. I never knew for sure that she was lying." The entity said, casually.

"Yes you did, you called it out to me, saying words of treachery and deceit." Harry said confused, sure that he had heard the words from him during his conversation with Daphne.

"I merely had strong suspicions, Harry. Her story had holes in it and I responded in kind. I know that the truth is important to you, so I helped." He spoke, embers trailing up in new patterns as he moved during his explanation.

"You acted upon hearing my words, you reconsidered her story, it was you who, if only partially; believed me and acted accordingly. I knew nothing for sure Harry. You only believed it to be so."

Harry kept silent, knowing it to be true, he wouldn't have looked any further into her story had it not been for the words that had rang through his head at the time.

"But I'm glad to see you put value into my words, Harry. They often require much effort during the day." The entity said, sounding glad.

"Oh, what about the first time I casted the Bone-breaking Curse? You made me hallucinate and hear whole syllables." Harry inquired, finding inconsistencies.

"You had been very frustrated and angry at the time, Harry. making it more accessible for me to do so, the hallucination ran on your emotions while the syllables were from a memory I used; Voldemort at the Atrium to be precise." The entity explained to him.

"..You seem to have a pretty good scope of things you can do inside my head, I'm going to have to ask you to refrain from doing things similar to the practice in the future." Harry told rather than asked him.

"Anything to support you, Harry. My help comes in many forms." The entity merely said, not giving a clear answer.

"Besides, if you can do those kind of things, why not help me by stopping the nightmares? That would actually make a difference." Harry proposed.

"I'm sorry, Harry, I am unable to control your fleeting thoughts, just like you are now thinking on your own, will dreams-or nightmares run through your head uncontrolled. I cannot change anything on my own." The entity said, shaking its head.

"Great." Harry said, disappointed.

"You could however, learn Occlumency to control said thoughts and dreams; gag, chain and lock them away. Into the dark recesses of your mind from whence they came." The entity said, offering another method.

"If I can use it to do those things to my thoughts, to choose what I want inside my head. I could also prevent you from causing more hallucinations by locking the thoughts off you are using. Am I right, Maybe block you off completely too?" Harry, inquired, wondering why the entity would have Harry learn something that can be used against himself.

"It is true that you could also use it for that purpose, but I will most likely not induce another hallucination after your request not to do so." The entity said before continuing. "And I'll have to inform you that blocking me off will not be possible nor will it have much effect for I am not a memory, I am not a thought, I am part of you. A piece of the puzzle that needs to be placed."

"Really now. Well in any case, I'll have to think it over." Harry said, thinking about his previous experiences with Snape. He didn't want another repeat of the disastrous lessons, maybe he could ask Dumbledore for somebody else to teach him, maybe even Dumbledore himself now that he thought about it.

But Harry needed to think it over; he still didn't like the thought of having just about anyone teach him, since they would be able to see his memories, many of which were secrets that needed to be kept. Even Dumbledore wasn't the best choice in that regard, Harry had secrets he needed to keep from the gifted Legilimence.

"That would be all." Harry said, signaling his leave.

"Until next time." The entity said as Harry allowed darkness to envelop him again, beckoning his return to the real world.

* * *

**Extra long chapter, felt like a good moment to end it here.**

**Next time: Slug Club!**

**lectorsum: Thank you, and I'm pretty sure that the grammar use will be correct in this one..fingers crossed.**

**UltimateTouken: That imagination of yours x)**

**kartik kirk: M will be for sexual (Dunno how far, lime probably. Full lemons not sure.) and also for the battle scenes (for when they finally come lol) they might get pretty nasty.**

**I thank you all for your reviews, I got some pretty long ones the last time! And I must say; I like those the most, it's great to read about your thoughts, feedback and ideas. **

**Hope you all enjoyed!**


	11. Slug Club and New Plans

**Disclaimer: The Harry Potter Universe and all the characters belong to J.K. Rowling.**

* * *

Harry stood in front of a large, expensive looking door, his tired eyes taking in the fine details and brown colour it was bathed in. Letting him know that they had indeed arrived at the correct entryway, for the other doors didn't have this kind of craftsmanship.

He had woken up a bit troubled, the entity had been as vague as ever but still just as shady. The use of his memories to form hallucinations when his concentration lapsed was a troubling thought. Not only that but he didn't know how much value the promise of the entity held.

It had promised not to cause further illusions again and even suggested a way to ward off his nightmares, which included the amount of control he himself would have over Harry if he learned it. all he said was to help him but his words and methods were unsettling to say the least as they were cold and chaotic.

For now he simply hoped that he wouldn't have to deal with him again for a long time.

"Ready, Harry?" Hermione asked from his side.

He nodded and raised his hand, knocking, pretty sure that he would have to be let inside.

Soon enough the door opened and he was caught by Slughorn's arms swinging around him, as if afraid he would run away at the last second, which might have been true. He thought morosely as he was led inside by the potions Professor.

"Come inside, Harry, come inside, we are all waiting for you!" Slughorn said, momentarily forgetting Hermione's existence in his giddiness.

The room was a mixture between a dining and common room, in the back of the oval shaped room were multiple chairs, tables and couches, with a magically enchanted fireplace nearby as the flames formed human shapes in the fire, talking to each other animatedly, performing some kind of play to any onlookers.

The tables held various gizmos, likewise to those in Slughorn's office, surrounded by multiple snacks and beverages in expansive flasks and plates.

The rest of the room too had Slughorn's taste, as intricate tapestries covered the floor and tables, on the walls were various items of success and photograph's of previous Slug Club members.

He was led to a round and smoothly polished table, covered with delicacies that wouldn't be served any other day at Hogwarts.

"Here have a seat!" Slughorn said, planting him next to Daphne in one of the few remaining seats.

"Hey." He said to her, giving a small and quick greeting as Hermione seated herself on his other side. "Does everyone have an predetermined seat here?"

"Evening, Harry, and no, just you." She said, propping her chin on her hand with a gleam in her eyes, telling him that her entertainment had arrived.

"Let me introduce you to everyone." Slughorn began, seated directly across the table from him. "Starting from my left is Blaise Zabini, whom you met on the train ride already." Harry inclined his head this time, not caring that Zabini didn't.

"Onwards from him are the lovely Carrow twins; Hestia and Flora." He said, indicating towards two girls; likely one year below him, looking identical in everything except for their names as both of their hair was styled parallel with the same russet brown colour, wearing green clothes with neutral expressions towards him.

"Hello-"

"-Potter."

One of them began and ended, instantly reminding him of Fred and George. However they seemed to be more of a polar opposite of their personalities as they seemed calm and reserved.

"Nice to meet you- both of you." He replied politely as they were respectful in their greeting towards him unlike Zabini.

"From there on we mostly have friends of yours, Harry. Next is Daphne Greengrass, potions prodigy and your partner; whom you prove to be exceptionally compatible with." Slughorn said, awkwardly introducing Daphne.

Daphne, however didn't feel that way as she sat up a bit straighter, a smile on her face.

"After Daphne is Hermione, our top class student and your close friend." Slughorn continued, taking no notice of Hermione slightly blushing face from his praise.

"Next is to her is Neville Longbottom, also a new guest for our Club meetings, already having been introduced to the rest of the Club himself."

"Hey, Harry." A voice Harry recognized said, making him look to the direction it came from and indeed saw Neville seated next to Hermione, having remained unnoticed by him throughout the introductions of the others.

"A pleasant surprise, Neville." Harry said, wondering how he had ended up here. Neville hadn't been invited to any others meetings since the train ride, as far as he knew from Hermione at least. He briefly looked at Hermione to see her shrug, truly having had no idea of his coming either.

"Lastly is Cormac McLaggen, whom you surely recognize for being one year above you, and having met in our initial meeting on the train." Slughorn said, motioning to the large youth with short wavy hair.

"Evening." McLaggen simply said, both of them hardly knowing each other.

"Evening." Harry greeted back.

"Let's continue now that we have left the introductions behind. We have various exotic dishes again, courtesy to some of the best cooking house elves of the wizarding world." Hermione shifted in her seat here, likely itching to protest. "Now, enjoy yourselves and dig in, grab whatever fancies your interest!" Slughorn proudly announced.

The whole table began picking food off the dishes, quickly ruining the little works of arts that had been made with it using the shapes and colours of the food.

Slughorn began telling stories to McLaggen and Zabini about the first time he had tasted each of these dishes and how he managed to acquire them from their creators, McLaggen listening in mild interest while Zabini ate his food for the most part, not really listening.

"Strange." Harry said, swallowing another bite. "I had expected him to immediately pellet me with questions like last time on the train."

"Oh, I may have had a hand in that." Daphne said casually.

"How so? You weren't at the train meeting, how did you know?" He asked.

"I can talk to people, thank you very much, Harry. McLaggen had described his first meeting to me, when I joined here, a while before Granger came. He told me how Slughorn made you and Neville slightly uncomfortable with his questions."

"What did you do to stop him then, did you threaten him with your wand or something?" Harry asked, curious as to what could stop Slughorn.

"I merely approached him beforehand, asking him to refrain from asking such questions in the presence of others. I learned by now that you don't like to elaborate on such things, I let him know that it would put you at ease, making you more willing to attend the other Clubs." Daphne revealed.

"Your devising is scary at times like these but thank you nonetheless." Harry said, truthfully.

"Let me take care of things and everything will be fine, Harry." Daphne said, grinning. "However Slughorn might as well ask when we're alone with him."

"Still that's a lot better than right here." He said, glad for her actions.

He turned his head to Neville and Hermione as the latter began questioning Neville's presence while Daphne turned to answer some questions from the Carrow twins.

"How did you get here Neville? You weren't invited to any new meetings after the train ride, right? What happened?" Hermione asked, rounding on Neville as soon as everyone around the table had entered conversation.

"I'm not really sure why he would do it, but it had been after my fight with Nott." Neville said confused, frowning a bit in thought.

"_Fight_?" Harry asked incredulous. Surprised that somehow, Neville's reason for being here was for a fight with Nott.

"Yeah, it was a few days ago. I bumped against Nott in the hallway after rounding a corner, splattered ink all over his chest as I had been walking with an open flask." Neville said, looking a bit awkward as he recalled the memory.

"Why were you even walking with an open ink pot from the start? It's not the smartest thing you can do." Hermione said, making Neville look sheepish.

"I know, Hermione. I lost the lid somewhere in the library, I think somebody may have taken it while I hadn't been watching, but nonetheless I wanted to return to the common room to save my bottle of ink by getting a spare lid from my trunk, however Nott happened as you know." Neville said, scratching his neck.

"He got angry after I spilled it all over him, started throwing insults at me as I tried to calm him down. The insults however, soon turned towards me being a squib and my parents. I saw red for a moment and punched him."

"You punched him?" Hermione asked, perplexed at the outburst of the normally shy and withholding boy.

"Yeah, right in the face. Professor Slughorn came out shortly after; I think he had been watching us from the beginning. He prevented things from escalating to spells being thrown around and split us up. He deducted points from both of us and dismissed Nott by vanishing the stain, telling him to go see Madam Pomfrey for the hit, while giving me a detention." Neville explained.

"Afterwards he started going on and on about me taking after my parents and invited me to come here. I didn't want to come at first, but decided otherwise after he told me about you guys being here." Neville said, finishing his story.

"Unexpected to say the least." Harry said slightly stunned, the scenario looking strange in his head.

"Yeah, your changing, Neville. Not in a bad way mind you, although I'm also not trying to say that punching was the best thing to do either, but you get what I mean." Hermione said, rambling a bit.

"Says the girl that punched Malfoy in third year." Harry mumbled, earning a jab from Hermione, making him drop the food that had been on his fork, back to his plate.

"Say how is the food you have there, Harry?" Daphne suddenly said from his right, having finished her own conversation with the Carrows.

"Huh? Yeah it's good." Harry replied, switching his attention to her as she leaned over to him to see what he had on his plate, despite being seated right next to him, being perfectly able to look from her position.

"Really? Don't mind me testing it out then." Daphne said without reserve, picking some of the food from his plate with her fork and eating it.

"Uhm, that stuffs half eaten you know?" Harry said unsure whether or not she knew, and a bit uncomfortable with her casual behavior in front of Hermione's lightly twitching left eye and Neville's puzzling look.

"Hm? Oh that's fine, Harry." Daphne said in a cheerful tone, easily dismissing it and taking another bite from his food, seemingly oblivious to Hermione's eye.

"This is quite sweet isn't it, you like sweet stuff?" Daphne continued.

"It's okay, I'm more a fan of spicy." He said, trying to make it seem a bit more normal by eating some of his food himself, instead of sitting back and letting her eat his remaining food.

"You know, the same dishes are right in front of you. You can take all you want, Harry is perfectly capable of finishing his own plate." Hermione finally said in a polite voice that was a bit forced.

"He was beginning to eat a bit slowly, I'm making it easier for him." Daphne said pleasantly, to Hermione's annoyance.

"I like more of the sweet stuff myself, Harry. Pretty much anything Honeydukes sells, favorites would be; Mousse Cakes, Sugar Quills and Pumpkin Pastries." She said, smoothly picking up from where they had stopped.

"Really now, I'll make sure to remember it." Harry absentmindedly said, watching another bite go in.

"That would be the right course of action." Daphne said haughtily, holding her fork lightly between her fingertips.

"Of course Miss Greengrass." Harry said, feeling like a butler again, much like during their potions lessons where he is to retrieve the ingredients at the start.

"So where is Ginny?" Harry asked, remembering that she had also been there on the train ride. "She also came to the Club meetings did she not?"

"Asking about another girl with one in front of you, Harry? You should know better than that." Daphne said, pointing her fork at him, confusing him a bit with her words.

"But no; she wasn't invited to the Club meetings that followed after the train ride. Slughorn doesn't keep people in here for being good in making people's snot attack them." She said, turning stingy.

"There's more to her than that, Harry and Ginny get along well, he would have enjoyed her company right, Harry?" Hermione said, asking him for confirmation, while looking a bit smug.

"Yeah she opened up more during the years, quite funny to have around now." Harry said carefully as Daphne jabbed particularly hard at the food on his plate.

"Say, you guys are organizing the Christmas party right? How are things going along?" Neville said, coming to his rescue with a different topic.

"Yes indeed!" Slughorn said, coming out of his conversation with the Carrow twins when he overheard the two words from them. "How is the organizing coming along? Do you have any ideas for the party?"

"We do." Daphne said, relieving him a bit as he hadn't come up with anything yet for the party. "We plan to invite more guests, multiple bands and expand the rooms to accommodate said expansion of people."

"More guests and larger rooms, why?" Slughorn questioned, turning more business like at the prospect of increasing his costs.

"For the main event which will fit young and old; dancing." Daphne said, making dread settle in on his full stomach at the thought of another Yule ball, another dance, and another hunt for a date. But he kept his calm, speaking up against her now would reveal his lack of involvement.

"Dancing? I must say that I mostly shied away from it, afraid that it would take away too much of the conversations." Slughorn said, voicing his thoughts.

"Which is why the dances that will be held are more traditional and slow, allowing for good one on one conversations between witches and wizards. Besides it also introduces my reason for wanting more room, it's so that people who are not interested or have finished dancing can move to another room, away from the roaming dancers."

"The youngsters here would genuinely like it? I remember some cases from other formal parties where the juniors looked none too happy about it." Slughorn said, swirling his mustache as he doubted the idea.

"Likely because they were forced to, instead of choosing to. People here can decide for themselves whether or not they want to." Harry said, offering Daphne some support, making her smile a bit at him.

"I see; this way only the eager would show themselves on the floor, and move to another room if feeling otherwise." Slughorn said, nodding.

"Hogwarts held a ball not too long ago with the Triwizard Tournament, it contained traditional along with more energetic dancing. People enjoyed it very much and would probably do so again, even without the more powerful dancing." One of the Carrow twins said, presumably Hestia, offering another positive opinion.

"But, there will surely be a good amount of people that won't know the appropriate dances if we invite more people from around the castle, leaving the floor looking empty in contrast to the amount of tenants." Slughorn said, poking a hole in the idea, leaning back in his chair and resting his hands on his filled belly.

"Maybe supplementary lessons can be held for those who don't know? The same was done for the Yule ball." Hermione said, presenting a solution.

"The party is six weeks from now, I'm afraid that searching for an instructor will take too long, not to mention that we still have to sort and invite the extra guests." Slughorn said, turning more reluctant as they were presented with more obstacles.

"Those problems can easily be taken care of, Horace. A list of potential people to invite has already been made, the dance lessons will also pose no difficulties; Harry and I will serve as their instructors. We know the dances that are going to be held at the party, and will offer our help to the students as we invite them." Daphne said confidently, making him snap his neck to her as she was obviously lying about him knowing any of the dances.

"Really!" Slughorn said, perking up at the preparations that had been made by 'them'. "It would indeed be wonderful to have you two serve as public representatives of the party, I could easily provide you with a classroom spacious enough to accommodate your lessons."

"That would be helpful to us, Horace." Daphne said, looking quite pleased with herself.

"But," Slughorn began in a tone that suggested it was his final hurdle to them. ""I must say that while dancing would be enjoyable indeed, Is it going to make up for the effort that will need to be put into it? What else will it offer? Don't forget that this is also meant for senior wizards and witches wishing to lay contacts and forge beneficial pacts besides pleasant conversation."

Daphne smiled so predatory that he felt a shiver run up his spine. "That, dear Horace, is where our theme for the party comes in."

"Your theme?" Slughorn said, leaning over to them, along with the rest of the people seated at the table, an enticed look written all over his face.

"Yes, you feel reluctant because you're afraid that your party will be just that; a fancy party, nice and simple but forgotten just as easily. Ending up unnecessary in the end, having been nothing out of the ordinary to remember it by." Daphne said, luring everyone around the table in with each word, sparking curiosity in them.

"My idea will make this party unique for everyone, serving to make it memorable for years to come and adding to your own desire of having your guests reach out and contact each other." Daphne continued, eyes blazing in the passion of her drive.

"What we need is a certain flair to it, mystery for the guests, and exceptionality for the memory while staying appropriate for the traditional dances and varying attendants."

Daphne waited for a moment to let them guess, speaking again when no one spoke up.

"..A masquerade." She spoke into the silence, leaning forward a bit. "Imagine the imprint it would leave on everyone, Horace. The mysterious air all around the party, who is that witch, who is that wizard? Guests will seek each other out to learn more about the person they see. Not able to recognize them from face alone, coming forward with little reservations as they are hidden themselves, starting conversations with people they might otherwise have shied away from."

Harry, along with the rest of the table gaped at her, before he turned to look at Slughorn, coming over his own initial surprise.

Said potions Professor kept staring ahead, a million thoughts likely running through his head, having stopped twirling his moustache, holding it still between his fingertips.

"Speak no more, Daphne. You have convinced me.." Slughorn said to them, not realizing she hadn't continued talking in the first place.

He stood up abruptly, his chair screeching as it was pushed back. "This idea is absolutely genius.. Don't worry about the decorations and senior guests, I'll get it prepared. Give me the list of people to invite later, I'll gather more students to help you two invite and organize. Please contact me if there is anything else I can help you both with."

"In fact, I'll be taking absence for some time, I'll be back in a while." Slughorn said, marching to the door, absorbed with the idea.

"Like, right now?" Neville asked, perplexed as Slughorn had already touched the door.

"Oh yes, time is of the essence, I have a few calls to make." Slughorn said, only his head left peeking out of the door to them.

"Daphne, Harry; regarding the masquerade, half face masks will be required as a minimum, no eye masks, they still reveal too much of the person underneath." He said, adding only one condition to the idea before disappearing, closing the door.

Silence lingered for a moment before Hermione spoke out. "Uhm, I'll be taking those lessons, the few dances from the Yule ball are quite some time ago.."

"Me too, I'm pretty rusty after stopping going to the parties my gran made me go to." Neville said.

"Slughorn will probably ask the rest of us to help recruit and organize, we can help with the lessons too if you want. We likely know the dances that will be held." McLaggen said, indicating towards himself, Zabini, and the twins.

"Neville and I can help with the organizing and inviting." Hermione said, offering help where they could.

"Thank you all, we'll take you up on your offer." Daphne said after confirming each of their consents.

"But I didn't know you knew the dances, Harry. Have you been practicing with Greengrass beforehand?" Hermione asked, looking skeptical.

"Ah, yes about that…excuse us for a moment, emergency meeting." He said, grabbing Daphne's wrist, pulling her with him to the area further back in the room where the chairs and couches stood.

"What's up, Harry?" Daphne asked innocently after he rounded on her, out of hearing range from the others.

"Don't 'what's up' me, Daphne. Stop pulling this kind of crap on me! First you have me come here and to the upcoming party, next you rope dancing lessons one me. I don't know if your aware of it, but Hagrid knows more about dancing than I do!" He hissed.

"Minor details, Harry. I've seen you learn from me in our potions lessons, you will pick it up in no time with my help; ready to teach the others before they come." Daphne said, crossing her arms, finding it a small problem.

He, however didn't think likewise, he had his research which was becoming more frustrating every evening along with his training, homework, Club meetings and friends. He wasn't looking forward to combining that with multiple dance lessons in the coming weeks.

"We already talked about this during our detention, where you pulled the same stunt. You're doing it again now; yes I might have said no but that doesn't mean you just work yourself around it and force me into it." He said, her aloof demeanor doing little to calm him.

"Oh, come on Harry. it's a brilliant idea, admit it." She said, frowning as he wasn't anywhere near the positivity she would have liked.

"No, I already told you; I don't have _time_ for this." He said, putting emphasis and making a small gesture around them.

"Why not, Harry? You don't have to go towards the classroom every night. You could just skip a few nights._" _Daphne said, turning serious, questioning his reasons for being so devoted and finding that his tight schedule was flexible to her, even wanting him to skip nights altogether.

"Because I don't have a choice. I have to do it." He said, exasperated

"No good will come out of pushing yourself, especially regarding _that."_ Daphne said, warningly.

"I'll be fine. You owe me for this, Daphne, I'll talk to you later." He said, moving towards Hermione and Neville who had left the table and started approaching them at the lounging area. The last thing he heard from Daphne being the huff she let out before plumping down on the couch behind her.

"What's wrong, Harry? It looked a bit heated." Hermione asked, questions written all over her face. Her eyes switching between him and Daphne in the background.

"Same story as with detentions; promises and plans were made without my knowing. I told her that she should have asked me, instead of assuming that I would decline her. Having opted to work her way around it to make sure she got what she wanted." He said sourly, seeing Hermione look disapprovingly at Daphne, and Neville with a mixture of conflicted thoughts for both parties.

"It's safe to say that you don't know any of the dances then? Nor anything about the masquerade?" Hermione asked, indignant. Her face a mixture of surprise and disbelief.

Seeing Hermione face and tone quickly made him stop his irritation from showing, dinner hadn't gone all that smoothly for Daphne and Hermione; mainly Hermione if judging visually. Not to mention that Hermione hadn't been exactly fond of hearing from Daphne's actions during their detention, having a repeat right now didn't do much good either.

It would be better to try and ease Hermione irritations if he wanted to introduce the two of them with some degree of success.

"I didn't know anything about the theme, but It's fine, Hermione. I'll have her pay me back in whatever way I see fit for this." Harry said, speaking honestly to her while trying to drop the issue.

"What about those dances, Harry. You don't know any of them, maybe one, completely rusty from the Yule ball but that's it. you will be teaching the other students soon." Hermione continued.

"Daphne and I will be practicing them beforehand, I'll have it down quick enough." He said, making Hermione pull a face which said that she wasn't done yet.

"Look," He said, before Hermione had opened her mouth again to protest. "Daphne isn't a bad person, just very stubborn, and probably even selfish at times like these." Making Hermione look doubtful at the parts where he had been positive. Conflicted by her own thoughts and opinions on Daphne.

"At least one thing you have in common then.. the stubborn part being what I mean of course." Neville said a bit jokingly, trying to ease the tension.

"Oh, you have no idea." Hermione said, smiling a bit.

"But I guess you're right, Harry. I can see you having plenty of fun during the lessons, giving me some reassurance on her other; more positive personal traits. Anyone you familiarize yourself with can't be all that much of a bad person." Hermione said, relenting.

"Good, because I still want to introduce you to her." Harry said, glad that she was calming down.

"I know, Harry. Dinner… didn't prove to be the right time for it." She said slowly, referring to his and Daphne's little display of finishing his plate.

"Ah, yes.." Harry said, unsure how to respond.

"Let me introduce you two to each other." He said, switching one awkward subject for (likely) another.

They returned to the lounging area. Finding Daphne intently studying the animated fire, a bit of a moping expression on her face.

"Daphne." He said, beginning in a much more neutral tone than he had previously ended, pulling her attention to him, her face quickly morphing from sulking to pleased at hearing him return to her before dimming a bit after seeing the crowd he brought.

"I'm sure that no introduction will be needed for Neville, I have understood that you already know him from balls and parties in the past." He said, remembering Neville's words from the start of the year.

"I do." She simply said, inclining her head to Neville in a small greeting as he did the same.

"You have already heard me speak a bit about my treasured friends, please meet one of them; the smart, brave and loyal Hermione Granger." Harry said, not holding back in the compliments he had for his friends

"Hermione, meet Daphne Greengrass, by Slughorn proclaimed potions prodigy, my partner and soon to be..dance instructor." He said, letting her know that he hadn't forgotten.

"Uhm, pleased to meet you." Hermione said, blushing from his words as she held out her hand to Daphne.

"Likewise." Daphne said, standing up and shaking the offered hand while her eyes shifted from him to Hermione, a look indescribable to him on her face.

"It's much like the case you and Harry had, we were too busy with our own friends and business to actually notice each other, despite sharing classes. Not that I didn't know your name before, but you get what I mean." Hermione said, babbling a bit.

"I do and your right, I guess Horace's idea really did help in that regard." Daphne said, briefly meeting his eyes during her words.

"So how did you come upon the idea to hold a masquerade?" Hermione asked, trying some conversation.

"I didn't, Tracey gave it to me as one of her ideas for the party. I knew that it would be perfect as soon as I had heard the word." Daphne said, giving Tracey credit for having mentioned it.

"Sorry for the delay!" They heard Slughorn suddenly call out, having entered the room again, ending their short exchange. "Everyone please join me at the table for another moment."

They moved towards the table after hearing his words, seating themselves again as he began to speak.

"I have swiftly consulted my expense and decorations organizers in my leave, I will be happy to say that they find it feasible with the help that is offered, promising a spectacle to behold." Slughorn said, telling them what he had been doing in his absence.

"However, just Harry and Daphne will not be enough to sort through the guest list that we now have, which is why I wish to ask the remaining people here for their help, it is not obligatory so feel free to decline, but understand my favor lies with you."

"We have already been decided, Slughorn. The remainder of us will help sort through the guests that are invited and will ask whether or not they require lessons." Zabini said in a rather bored tone. Surprising Harry that he was helping them, even if it probably was more for his own amusement of attending a masquerade than anything else.

"Really? Fantastic! That certainly speeds things up for our meeting then, I trust that asking people from Slytherin and Gryffindor will pose no difficulty with half of our current Club consisting of it. Ravenclaw can mostly be left to Slytherin, you share a good amount of free periods with them. The same can be said for Gryffindor and Hufflepuff." Slughorn said, giving the others instructions.

"Be fast and efficient, I wish to have an agenda ready of everyone who will be coming from the original list along with those who will need supplementary lessons at the next Club meeting in two weeks, alright?" Slughorn asked them for confirmation.

Multiple agreements sounded from around the table, making him look satisfied in response.

"Let's raise a toast to celebrate this sensational turn of events." Slughorn said as small glasses appeared in front of them.

"A toast, to Hogwart's brightest and best!" He said proudly, raising his glass in a toasting gesture, all of them taking their glasses and returning the gesture, drinking the burning liquid in one go.

"I-isn't this a bit strong Professor?" Hermione said, looking to be taking a good amount of effort in not coughing from the spiked liquid. Having not expected the alcohol.

"Horace or Slughorn, Hermione." Slughorn said, reminding her about how he wanted them to address each other. "But it was indeed a bit strong wasn't it!" Slughorn said, laughing as others slowly started conversing with each other again. "It's okay once in a while, seventy years old from Greece, only the best for these kind of occasions."

"You okay there, Hermione?" He asked, raising his eyebrow at her. looks like the few drinks Sirius had introduced to him were helping out now.

"Totally." Hermione said after a moment of blinking her eyes and clearing her throat. "How's your training coming along, Harry. What kind of things have you been learning?"

"Oh you know, practicing my aim, improving spells like Stupefy, Protego and Reducto on their firepower, silently casting while doing so." Harry said, feeling a sting run though him as he saw her nod in belief and appraisal.

"That's wonderful, Harry. But don't wear yourself out too much during those trainings, you go to sleep with Ron and everyone else, but still seem to get up tired. Are you having trouble sleeping at night?" Hermione asked, quietly.

"Yes, I'm thinking about casting Silencing Charms around Ron's bed, his snoring might wake up the whole Forbidden forest." He said softly, smiling a bit despite feeling like a jerk for misleading her from the truth.

"You're not having nightmares then? Ron and I know you've been having them over the past few years." Hermione nearly whispered now, putting her hand on the back of his, looking solicitously at him.

"I'm fine Hermione, they've lessened by now." He said in the same volume, this time not entirely managing to convince her with his easy going smile as she looked a bit sad, maybe even disappointed, her eyes downcast for a moment before coming back to his.

"That's good. Know that we are here for you when you need us, Harry." Hermione said reassuringly to him, giving his hand a small squeeze before slowly retracting.

"I know, Hermione. I know that very well." He simply said, thinking about their loyalty to him; dangerous loyalty.

"Harry." He heard from his other side, catching his attention as Daphne called his name. "Care to move to the lounging area for some conversation concerning the party?" She said, quietly moving her chair back and moving to the area further back, not waiting for his answer.

"Why in private Harry?" Neville said, wondering why it couldn't be in front of them.

"She probably has some extra surprises, can't have too many people know and accidentally spoil it, right?" Harry said, despite having a feeling that the surprises would be about more than just the masquerade.

"But, I'll see you guys in a bit then." He said, not waiting for their answer himself, and moving to join Daphne.

She seated herself next to the fireplace on a couch that allowed them to keep the whole room within sight. He joined her, being too paranoid to sit in the armchair with Slughorn around.

"What is it you wanted to talk about?" He asked after a moment of sitting next to each other.

She mumbled something after crossed her legs arms and arms, sounding to have great trouble with speaking the unrecognizable words, her head turned away from him.

"What was that? I'm over here, Daphne, I didn't hear what you were saying." He said in response to her behavior and unheard words.

"I said that I'm sorry, okay?!" Daphne quickly said, whipping her face with red tinged cheeks around to look him in the eyes. "I shouldn't have dumped those things on you without your knowing or consent.."

He sighed, "It's okay, Daphne. Just promise that you will ask me from now on, and accept my choice in the matter even if it doesn't meet your wishes or expectations."

"I will." She said gloomily, uncrossing her arms and resting them on her lap.

He took a moment to gaze at her morose mood, how she quietly stared downwards at her fiddling thumbs, with her eyes seemingly trying to hide themselves, her usual boastful nature having turned docile and awkward. She wasn't used to giving apologies.

"The masquerade really was a good idea you have expanded upon though. You made good use of it to fit everyone's wishes, you covered all the problems beforehand to make it work." He said smiling a bit, seeing her perk up at his words.

"W-wel of course, I knew it was perfect from the start. You're just been acting negative about it because you botched up your own night at the Yule ball." She said, quickly coming back in full swing.

"Oh shut up, will you. The Christmas party will be different." He said, after being reminded of the Yule ball.

"It better be, for you and I will be the representatives for the party. I'll chain you to my wrist if I have to." She said, looking seriously at him.

"Please don't, I'll be good." Harry said before gears began to work. "Wait, you mean to say that you and I will be going to the party as a couple then?"

"Of course, we are the representatives and will be giving the supplementary lessons, it would be senseless for us not to be so at the party itself." Daphne said, speaking as though it should have been overly obvious to him.

Harry closed his eyes for a moment, girl is impossible, it was a good thing he had asked.

"Anything else that I ought to know?" He said, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, but it regards a completely different topic." Daphne said, turning serious, taking a quick look around with her eyes to see that everyone was still at the table.

"It's about the Dark Arts. You are practicing them, whatever your reasons for practicing, be it for stomping Malfoy or upping your grades; it is not worth it." She said, boring her eyes into his as her volume lowered.

He looked back just as easily. "I wouldn't practice them for such petty reasons, Daphne. I know that my reasons are worth it."

"The Dark Arts can be addicting, Harry. It's one of the reasons why it is shunned. People who dive too deep will drown, unable to reach the surface again." She said unconvinced of his words.

"Oh come on, that's just talk to scare people off from using it. They require darker intent and emotions but that's all, they're a polar opposite from the Light spells. It's your morality and what you decide to do with it that defines you." Harry said, disagreeing with her.

"It's more than just talk, not everyone, but a good portion of people who practice and look too much into it, become absorbed in it. On more than just a mental level; physically as well. It seeps into their very own bodies, changing people through its use." Daphne said in response.

"..I see, this way morality will be changed in turn. Which explains the saying of people 'going Dark.'" Harry said, absentmindedly. "Still this changes nothing, I'll control it if the unlikely situation occurs at all. Although I thank you for the warning and your concern."

She pursed her lips. "..Do your friends know?"

"No, and I intent to keep it that way."

"For what reason do you keep it from them, Harry, what reason do you have for practicing it at all?" Daphne asked, intrusively.

"To protect, Daphne. People who associate themselves with me often end up unfortunate, the same can be said to you; you should be careful about showing your allegiance yourself. Trouble will find me, and I'm doing what I can. Telling my friends won't help them in any way, might even endanger them later on." Harry said, listing some of his reasons and giving her a warning.

"Are rumors from your previous school years true then? I could certainly qualify that as trouble." She asked, leaning forward, completely ignoring his warnings to her.

"I don't know what is said exactly, but at least a small portion of it should be correct." He said, thinking about how the rumors from each of his years were somewhat correct.

"When you came back with Cedric did you-" She began, questioning the most controversial rumor.

"- This is not the time nor place for that, Daphne." He said cutting her off, uncomfortable with the memory.

"Sorry.. and everything that is being said about the 'Chosen one' is there some kind of truth in that?" She said unhindered, opting to change questions instead of stopping.

"True in a sense, you can say that Voldemort-" She stiffened a bit at the name. "-has a bit of a personal grudge for me. He came after me in the past, and will do so again in the future." Harry said, giving something.

"Do you know why he came after you, Is there any special reason?" She asked, likely thinking about the multiple dots surrounding it, but unable to make something solid out of it with the information she had.

"Just that my parents were in a resistance group against him, he found out and came to take them out and..well you know the rest." He said, keeping it short and simple.

"I see." Daphne said, taking a moment to look at him.

"Have you been following my advice, Gotten some sleep? No, never mind, don't answer; I can see that you didn't. What else are you doing, Harry? You should not be tired If things are as Granger mentioned." Daphne asked, answering half of the questions herself in the progress.

"You overheard us then?" Harry asked in return to her knowing of his and Hermione's silent conversation just before.

"Only about you going to sleep with Weasley at the same time, and your answer to her, but only because you were talking too loud! You two started whispering after that.." Daphne said, making it sound like it was his fault.

"You- argh, never mind." He began and ended, not even beginning the discussion on how she had been intently listening in on them. "it's the same as I said to Hermione; Ron sn-"

"Don't pull a Ron on me too, Harry. that's bollocks. You are either spending your time on something or find yourself unable to properly sleep." Daphne said, this time cutting him off.

Both, Harry thought, glad that she hadn't overheard the rest and replied otherwise,. "Sometimes things aren't all that complicated, Daphne. I'm a light sleeper and a busy person, it's true that I might get worn out a bit by it."

"Fine, be that way." Daphne grumbled.

"You might talk about me but are you ok yourself? You've been a bit red for some time now." He said, taking a closer look at her slightly red face, which couldn't be from blushing anymore.

"You don't have to make excuses for wanting to take a closer look at me , Harry." Daphne said lightly, even turning her head more to him, so that he got a better look.

He lapsed for a moment, seeing her red tinged cheeks glowing defiantly in contrast to her white skin. The warm light of the fireplace giving the rest of Daphne's skin a soft and inviting look.

"Sure, Daphne. Now back to the question." He said after a moment, reminding himself. Her blue eyes staring back at him, flames from the fire dancing inside.

"I'm just a bit bad with alcohol, that's all, the glass was quite strong for me." Daphne said, offhandedly.

"Really? Better watch out with the drinks at the masquerade then." He said, imagining a drunk and wobbly Daphne, thrashing about on her own party.

"I'm the perfect example of self-discipline, there will be no problems whatsoever." She said, confidently.

He heard the scraping of chairs and turned to see everyone at the table standing up. Slughorn addressing them one last time.

"I once again thank you all for coming and wish you good luck with your tasks. Don't overburden yourself and go see your fellow organizers or me if you come across hard to solve problems. I'll see you at the next potions lesson otherwise." Slughorn said, looking at all of them fondly.

Harry rose out of the couch turning to look back after finding his side empty, seeing Daphne look up at him from the couch, her hand outstretched.

He took her hand in his; warm and soft like it looked earlier, feeling a natural smile on his face as he guided her up. Was this meant to become a habit now?

"Promise me you won't dive too deep, Harry." She asked seriously, her eyes looking into his for reassurance.

"I can't make that promise without the chance of having to break it later on, I will do whatever necessary. I can promise you however; that I'll always keep others in mind." Harry said, unwaveringly.

"You should keep yourself more in mind." Daphne said sadly, despite the small smile on her face.

"I'll see you soon, Harry." She said, moving towards the door.

"Yeah, see you around." He called back, looking at the fire for a moment, seeing two flaming figures hug each other before molding into a single flame, signifying their union.

He turned away from the flame, squinting to see Neville and Hermione waiting for him at the door, through his heavy feeling eyes.

"So any surprises?" Neville asked after Harry had reached them.

"Yes actually; Daphne apologized, and can't seem to hold her liquor." He said, suppressing a yawn as they moved out of the room into the hallway.

"Surprises indeed." Neville said as the door closed behind them.

Harry moved with them to the common room, already mentally preparing himself for another long night.

Maybe he should spend some time learning more about the Dark Arts instead of Voldemort's survival technique? His research had begun to reach a dead end anyway with all the information in Hogwarts's nearly searched through.

The things Daphne had told him were actually new to him despite briefly having looked into multiple books already regarding the nature of the Dark Arts. The information must have been either vague or omitted as he hadn't come across it during his readings.

But then again it would scare your readers away to begin your book with such a forbidding message at the start.

In any case it would be a nice change from his frustrating research while still being an interesting topic he ought to learn more about.

* * *

**Hope you enjoyed this chapter. I never knew that I would like writing so much, nor that I'm quite slow paced. **

**Updates too will probably become weekly now, releasing on Sat or Sunday.**

**Write your thoughts! What did you like, what did you hate, which scene went well, which scene didn't? Plot? Characters? Bananas? Tell me everything! HHNNGGG -explodes-**

**Next Chapter: Happy feet.**

**PaC: I can only suggest reading past chapt 3 for more changes. Early chapters contain canon, yup, I said so at the beginning. Other than that you mostly seem upset about Haphne in general, maybe read stories with other pairings? Apologies for my mistakes, English is my second language.**

**trispectrum:I think I'm beginning to enjoy reading reviews like yours more than fanfics these days, not saying that other fanfics are bad or anything, but you get the idea. It's great to read people's thoughts.**

**hazman11: Bashing? No, I dislike stories/parts where they completely hammer in on characters. It cracks my heart more than a biscuit ever could. It's probably due to me not hating any of the HP characters, thus not finding myself enjoying it.**

**kartik kirk: Can't say for sure, and the same about bashing can be said to you.**

**Sennybee98: I can't accept your kind compliments completely; he hasn't told Hermione and Ron anything significant yet, (which this chapter should show) he told them about his detention with Daphne mostly because it isn't anything major and he couldn't have avoided it with his coming to the Club.**

**area808code: True, but it's kind of hard to tell someone that you've been spying on them multiple times. Otherwise it was just her Slytherin nature coming out to word her way out of it, and failing. Glad you enjoyed it though.**

**Arx: Sorry, but this is my pace, changing it would likely go at the cost of the story, and my soul.**

**lectorsum: Thank you, and found+corrected it.**


	12. Compatibility and Insomnia

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter Universe and all the characters belong to J.K. Rowling.

* * *

"A masquerade instead of the normal party?" Ron asked perplexed, looking at each of them from his seat in the common room.

"Yes, Ron, little more than a month from now." Said Hermione.

"But, how the hell I'm I supposed to see who's Slytherin then?" He asked, scandalized at not being able to recognize who would be from which House.

"That's the point Ron, besides I think you can agree now that not all of them are so bad, right? Have you forgotten Davis's rare gift of goodwill to you from the Herbology lesson?" Harry asked, looking pointedly.

"I haven't, but Davis is an exception…she's okay." Ron said, leaning back in his chair, frowning in thought.

Harry sighed, at least glad that Ron was booking some kind of success with Davis, maybe the whole of Slytherin was a bit much to ask of him within the timespan that had passed up till now.

"Anyway, robes are fine, but the three of us will be in need of those masks now." Ron said, sulkily at the prospect of purchasing the presumably expansive masks.

"Maybe Fred and George could help us out with that, they could create something like that right?" Harry asked, having seen enough of the different kind of things the twins could make.

"They'll probably give us troll morphing masks, or something along those lines." Ron said, not trusting his brothers to produce anything normal, and with good reason.

"I can call in a favor from them, if we need to be sure that nothing will happen to the masks." Harry said, knowing they would respect his wishes after being their financial support.

"You mean the gold you gave them?" Hermione asked.

"Yup." He said, curtly, not really expanding upon his answer, knowing that they knew the story already.

"I guess that the masks are taken care of then." Ron said, satisfied that their masks would be safe to wear without the fear of being exposed to any side effects.

"Got any idea who you are going to take with you, Harry? I guess Cho is a no, things didn't go down all that well, did they." Ron asked, a bit crudely.

"No, things didn't." Harry said, thinking about how communications between them had faded into nothingness. "But I actually have more than just an idea, for I have a date already."

"You do?!" Asked both Hermione and Ron at the same time.

He leaned back a bit at their outburst. He knew he had been bad with his attempts at the Yule ball but..

"Yeah..I'm going with Daphne." He said, slowly.

"Her again?!" Ron exclaimed, while Hermione looked to be holding back the same words.

"Yes, _her_." He said, frowning at him for the disrespectful tone Ron addressed Daphne with. "We became one of the dance instructors in the supplementary dance lessons that will be held, as well as public representatives of the party itself."

"So, what? She forced you into it again?" Ron questioned.

"She did in a way, but I'm not completely against it, I was mostly upset about having to give the dance lessons, and I was clear in expressing that, Ron." Harry said.

"Which gives no guarantee that she won't do it again." Ron pressed.

"That's how things sometimes go, I appreciate your concern, Ron, but she has no evil intentions." Harry said, exasperated.

"She's…okay, Ron, just like Davis is." Hermione said, a bit slowly, helping Harry convince him.

"As long as you're fine with it, Harry, expect the rumor mill to start spinning before the party even starts though, being in the open with her as public representatives and instructors will do that. This is something freely chosen, unlike the school lessons." He said, giving a final warning, looking conflicted as Hermione had defended Daphne this time around.

"I know." He said, glad that Ron was giving Daphne more thought. "I guess you will also be in need of them, right?"

"Of what?" Ron asked, oblivious as to what Harry meant.

"The dance lessons Ron, you may be Pureblood, but I don't think you go to balls all that often. Hermione will also be in need of them." He said, giving Ron a look.

"Oh yeah, you're right. Better sign me up too.." Ron said, sheepishly.

"I'll be going now though, we agreed to meet up at seven." He said, rising from his chair.

* * *

Harry arrived at the empty classroom Slughorn had reserved for them, and moved to wait for Daphne's arrival, growing a bit dazed as he monotonously waited, his eyes slowly beginning to fall shut.

He regained focus when he began to hear music, the silence in the corridor making the damped sound more prominent. He turned towards the door, leaning closer to it, and recognizing it to be the source of the sound.

He opened the door and stepped inside, hearing a violin and cello play music that was likely appropriate to the dances they would be doing.

He looked to see where the sound came from and saw the instruments he had recognized with his ears. In the left corner of the room stood a violin and cello, their bows moving freely in the air without human aid, producing music for them.

He saw Daphne in the back using her wand to stack chairs and benches on top of each other, to create an open space in the room for them to use.

"Hey, you could have let me known that you were already inside, Daphne." Harry said to her making her turn around after hearing him speak up.

"Oh, hello, Harry. I wanted to set things up in advance." Daphne said, turning around after hearing his voice.

"Shouldn't the lady arrive after the man?" He asked, seeing that half of the classroom had already been moved by her.

"Don't complain. I'll have plenty of opportunities to make you wait in the future." Daphne said in response, levitating another table aside.

"Who gave you those instruments? Or are they yours?" Harry asked, motioning to the equipment in the corner, while drawing his reluctant wand and started moving the tables aside to help her speed things up.

"Horace gave them, he was happy to help. Dancing with music will help us out, right?" She asked.

"Probably; it will help with remembering the rhythm." He said, truthfully.

They continued stacking up chairs and tables for the next few minutes leaving them with an open area, the music luckily filling up much of the empty feeling the room now left behind.

"Let's begin, Harry. Take your robe off, they'll hinder our sight, It will help us focus on our position and footwork. We can leave the robes for when the actual ball arrives." Daphne said, removing her own robe, and throwing it over a chair as she talked. Revealing her sweater, knee socks and skirt from underneath her robes.

"Something wrong?" She asked sweetly, looking amused. "It doesn't look weird right? I guess you haven't seen me that much without any kind of robe."

"No, uh.. It looks good." He said, after she made a little twirl, glad that he managed to make it sound normal.

"Oh, good. I nearly doubted myself for a moment there." Daphne said, smiling, while coming over to him.

"Yeah, right." He said, dryly at her blatant lie.

"You will do any lady good by complimenting them at the right time, Harry." She said, placidly, as she stopped in front of him.

"What, I can't compliment them anytime?" He said, looking a bit apprehensively as she reached out to his robes, undoing the joints. Making him regret not having removed his robes himself, as her hands doing it felt strange and distracting.

"Of course not, it will come over as cheap and ordinary otherwise, words lose meaning if you overuse them." Daphne said, sliding off his robes and throwing them over her own on the chair.

"Good to know, I'll make sure to remember it in the future." He said, as the music momentarily stopped, the song having ended.

"Then I'll be following your progress closely, Harry. Can't send you off into the wide world without knowing the basics." Daphne said in feigned concern.

"Now..We will start with the Waltz. The waltz is a smooth, progressive ballroom and folk dance, performed primarily in closed position." Daphne began.

"Closed positions?" Harry asked, only having a vague idea as to what it meant, judging by the words.

"It's a dance category in which partners are in close proximity to each other using either body contact or body support." Daphne explained easily, finding nothing wrong with it.

"I see..will all the dances be like that?" He asked, apprehensive.

"No, we will also learn the Quickstep which is elegant and smooth, with the movement of the dance being fast and powerfully flowing. It is suitable for both formal and informal events." Daphne answered. "But it's a dance we will save for last, we will focus on the slower ones first."

"I'll let you lead, so I can adapt to your mistakes." Daphne said, holding her arms out.

"Wait." He said, kneeling down to her feet.

"Harry, I know that you find my legs really enchanting but-"

"Oh, get off your pedestal already." He said, feeling his cheeks warm up a bit as he pulled his wand out.

He tapped each of her shoes. Using slight Transfiguration to turn the tip of the material into a harder variant.

He stood back up again, her face quickly turning from confusion, and curiosity to a warm smile, as she noticed her protected toes.

"That should keep your feet safe from the incoming onslaught." He said, smiling back, glad that the idea came to him.

"An ingenious idea, Harry." She said, her eyes gleaming, before lifting her arms in a pose that said enough to him.

He placed one hand on her back, while she draped her arm over his shoulder and neck. He clasped her free hand that was in the air, the skin of her hand feeling pleasant in his.

She took a step closer to him, decreasing their already small proximity to each other, the warmth he felt during the detention, and the flowery scent he smelled from her hair making themselves known again to him.

"Your hand, Harry." She calmly said, and he knew what she probably meant, for his hand likely wasn't meant to go higher.

He slid his hand down her back. "Like this?" He asked, glad that they were currently looking over each other's shoulders.

"Lower." She said, softly, making him swallow, before sliding his hand down to her lower back, her body arching a bit as he did so.

"Perfect." She breathed in such a way that his heartbeat quickened a bit.

They briefly held this position, and he felt his body relax somewhat, with his face clearing itself of its blush. She briefly cleared her throat and leaned back a bit so that they were facing each other again.

"Let's begin, Harry. Step forward with your left foot." She said, evenly.

He did as she had told him and stepped forward with his left foot, her movements following, the music hesitantly starting again.

"Step diagonally with your right foot. This should place your feet roughly a shoulder's-width apart."

He performed the next step, her feet having moved with his when he did so.

"Step together, so that both feet are together again."

He did so again and laughed a bit as he noticed how the music played and stopped with each of their systematical steps, making it sound broken and rudely interrupted.

"The instruments he gave us are for practicing, playing with our tempo and movements so that we always move on the rhythm, at least it works that way if there is only one pair present. It will play continuously otherwise." She said, laughing softly with him. "Now, step back with your right foot."

"Step diagonally with your left foot this time." Daphne said, to which he repeated the earlier step with his other foot.

"Step together again, now we are back to the starting position. Let's repeat this for some time."

They moved for a while like this, practicing the basic steps, their movements getting jumbled sometimes when he stepped on her toes, being new to the movements, as well as momentary lapses of concentration creeping in on him from being tired.

Still it only serving to invoke hilarity as it didn't hurt her and the music began screeching until they properly recovered the pacing.

He soon began to feel more relaxed despite their closeness, her scent pleasant, and warmth welcome in the slight chill of the classroom.

"So, how is your flower coming along, Daphne?" He asked, knowing that talking would help against the fatigue, and feeling brave enough to have some conversation now, as the steps were easing into him.

"It's still a small stem now, I think it will become a beautiful flower once it blooms, it seems to be made out of glass or crystals, being translucent and giving reflections in every colour when hit by the sunlight." Daphne replied, sounding excited.

"That sounds very pretty indeed." He said, surprised that it had such an appearance.

"And, jealous already? Are you sure that you don't fancy wearing a flower in your hair with a spring in your step?" She asked, grinning as she repeated his words from their Herbology lesson at the time.

"No, I still don't fancy it, I'm sure that it will fit you better." He said, grinning back.

"Yes, who knows, it might grow into something befitting of my name." Daphne said, proudly.

"How so?" He asked, wondering what she meant.

"Daphne is a plant species. They are noted for their scented flowers and poisonous berries. It might grow into something similar." She said, smiling at the thought of the frozen plant adapting to her.

"You better be careful whenever I offer you some berries, Harry." She said, a devilish look on her face.

"I'll add it to my list of things to watch out for." He replied, thinking about how the scented part had already proven itself.

"Add under arm turns. Step back before guiding me under." She said, after a while of him correctly following the steps.

He stepped back, raised his arm and gave her a single spin, Daphne's face set in a dazzling smile as her hair and skirt fanning out around her, briefly mesmerizing him in the moment.

They returned to each other again and resumed their pacing.

"Brilliant!" She said still beaming.

He smiled back widely at Daphne, upbeat by her contagious presence.

"Say, Daphne." He began, a bit more serious.

"Yes, Harry?" She asked, contently.

"Do you.. no, could you tell me about your family?" He asked, suddenly wondering who her parents were, whether or not she had siblings, and curious about the background she grew up in.

"Want to know more about the mysterious and beautiful Daphne Greengrass hmm?" She asked haughtily.

"Yes, please tell me, being from above and beyond." Harry said with a deadpanned tone, amused inside.

"I guess peasants have a right to know." She said, feigning a sign of annoyance after he gave her another twirl.

"Let's make this a moment to stop for a moment, Harry, it's steady, but movement nonetheless." Daphne said, her breathing having quickened throughout the dancing.

He nodded, also feeling ready for a break, his body feeling colder after they separated, noting how the setting sun casted a red hue through the windows, and into the classroom.

They seated themselves on the edge of the large windows that ran around one side of the classroom, each of them on one corner of the window, facing each as they rested their backs against the wall.

"You know quite some things about me, Harry, and I know little about you. It's almost unfair of you to ask this of me, for I know that you won't answer mine." Daphne said, turning more serious.

"But I will tell you regardless of my inner snake saying that I should demand things of you. I know that won't help me, or you in any way. You'll keep your silence even more by doing that." She said, looking wistfully at him.

"I will trust you, like how you trusted me on the night where you could have made me take an oath. I will answer your questions in the hope that soon, or somewhere in the future, you will answer my questions regarding your own past." She said softly, her face set in a gentle expression.

Harry watched as she hugged her legs to her chest, the warm light of the setting sun making her hair shine golden and skin glow again.

He opened his mouth, feeling like he could spill his whole life out to her. "I..When..Sorry, I."

But no useful words came out, before completely clamping up and lapsing into silence.

She laughed softly at his jumbled words. "I said soon, not right now. But I thank you for your effort in trying to form coherent words."

He cleared his throat, getting rid of the vice that had taken hold of his vocal cords. "Your family, what's your family like?"

"I have my father; Alberic, he's a business man, but a good one at hearth, despite his upbringing from my grandparents." Daphne began.

"Your grandparents upbringing? What about it?" Harry asked, confused as to what she meant.

"My grandparents and all their predecessors had joined the Dark side, mostly in ideals but sometimes participating in war too. My father was raised with the same ideals by them of course. But he had been a pacifist from the start of his life. Having more interest in what he could create from behind his chair with a few galleons in his hand, than with his wand. He never took over much of the Dark Arts my grandparents were interested in." Daphne said, looking downcast as she talked about her grandparents.

Harry listened attentively to her story but momentarily fell in thought when she mentioned her older family members holding interest in the Dark Arts. Did they have special books, otherwise unavailable? Uncensored, with useful information?

But he kept the thoughts for another time and continued to give her his full attention as she continued.

"However, my father holds an even greater passion in potions than business, often having told me stories when I was a kid about potions going awry for their makers, causing them to end up in hilarious situations, and forms through their own mistakes." Daphne said, smiling fondly at the memories that were brought up.

"We often messed around with our potions at home; just some harmless stuff, always telling me things about each ingredient we used, whether it be facts or stories. You might have heard already, but we owe some apothecaries, he enjoys his work very much, as you can imagine."

"..Yes I think I did actually, from Slughorn at the start of the year during one of the times he invited me to the Slug Club, he mentioned 'the charming Greengrass' having a chain of apothecaries in their family." He said, thinking back to the vague memory where Slughorn mentioned it.

"Seems like Horace was right about multiple things then." Daphne said, smiling, confirming Slughorn's claims.

"And your mother?" He asked.

"My mother's name is Avelina, she owned a small apothecary in Knockturn Alley. Business didn't go very well however, she wasn't the best with connections, which are important if you need customers, and ingredients. Things went better for her after she met my father though; better for both of them actually. My father consequently gained the chance to move out by helping my mother's shop flourish with his economic insight in return for money, allowing him to sustain himself."

"This was the start of the withering relationship between my father and his parents, my parents soon fell in love during their partnership and sought to marry. My mother's side however, was not very high on standing and money, Pureblood, but not special, nor did they have history in the Dark Arts, and the wizarding wars. "

"My parents married despite the strained relationship between their families, and continued their apothecary to what it is now." She said, fingering the material of her skirt between her fingers.

"Your father wasn't disowned then? I, uh, hear that sometimes can happen." Harry asked, thinking about Sirius's family.

"My grandparents were unsatisfied with the marriage, and my father's declination of the Dark Arts, but always thought that he would become interested someday. Thing is that simply didn't happen. Besides, they didn't have any other heirs to pass the family on to, they were too proud to let their family line end there." Daphne said.

"I hardly knew them though, they died when I was small, Astoria hadn't even been born yet at the time. Father told me that things had become especially strained between them in the end."

"And the grandparents from your mother's side?" Harry asked, wondering about the other side.

"Alive and well, nothing special about them, luckily. I could go on about them too, but let's keep that for another time, you probably have one more question about my family so I better keep things within bounds." She said, sliding down from the window.

"Care to continue, Harry?" She said, looking back at him, ready for more.

"Yeah." he said, putting his feet on the ground again and moving to the center of the room with her, flicking some of the candles alight in the room with his wand, as the sun had sunk considerably during their conversation, leaving the classroom a bit dark.

"You have a sister right? You mentioned Astoria not being born yet when you were young." He said, pretty sure he had heard correctly. Their arms sliding back into position with the music starting again, as they started moving around the room.

"You're right, Astoria Greengrass is my younger sister, she's in third year now, quite short for her age, with brown eyes and hair. Competitive personality, with a pinch of humor, she always shows off her marks when they are better than what I got in my year at the time. She holds little interest in potions, having more talent in Charms." Daphne aid, giving a description of her younger sister.

"What's it like, having a sibling?" He asked in a distracted tone, only half aware that he had said it out loud, as he wondered what it would be like to have siblings.

"Bothersome, aggrevating, irritating, comforting, encouraging. We fight one day, and laugh the next. It's a routine." She said after coming out of her twirl.

"I see, I guess it's the same for multiple people then. The siblings at the Burrow can be described with the same words." He said, smiling a bit as he thought about the chaotic house.

"The Burrow?" Daphne asked, confused what he meant.

"It's the house of the Weasley's, I stay with them every summer." Harry said, answering her.

"Every summer?" Daphne asked, a bit surprised, to which he nodded.

"Not much fun at your own home then?" She said in a softer tone.

"No..Not much fun." Harry said, trying to keep the slight smile on his face.

"I see, that's a bummer." Daphne simply said, choosing not to push the subject, making him feel grateful.

"Let's twist and turn through the room, Harry. Repeat the same steps with more strength and speed, give us momentum in the movements, I'll easily move with you." She said, encouragingly.

He did as she told him, holding her supportively and making his steps lengthier. Finding her steps quickly adjusting to his tempo.

"What other dances will I be learning?" Harry asked, as they moved around the room, finding flow and rhythm.

"The Slow Foxtrot, Viennese Waltz, and as you already knew; Quickstep." She said, answering.

"I'm correct in saying that the Foxtrot and Viennese Waltz you mentioned are slower dances, with the Quickstep being the fastest out of them?" He asked, wanting to confirm his reasoning.

"Yes, The foxtrot is a smooth, progressive dance characterized by long, continuous flowing movements. The Viennese Waltz is a rotary dance where the dancers are constantly turning around each other, it's a dance we can add some things into. The quickstep is another variant of the standard ballroom dances. The movement of the dance is fast and powerful." She said, briefly explaining each of them.

"But more about those will come later, Let's think about the Waltz first." She said, both of them putting more effort in their steps.

He spun her again before pulling her back, quickly sliding them back into position and resuming.

"You're really easy to dance with, Daphne. I had studied the dance for the Yule ball, but you always seem to know where I'm going to go. It's fluent and easy, do you have a lot of experience?" He asked, remembering his dance with Parvati to feel differently.

She grinned devilishly and brought her lips close to his ear.

"I guess it's just our _compatibility_, Harry." She whispered much too suggestively, her hot breath blowing over his ear with her words. Making his face feel like a fireplace as heat surged through his head. He completely lost his footing, disconnected with her shortly afterwards as they fell down, feet and legs clashing in ways that wouldn't work out for anyone.

They each fell back on their butts, the hard floor unforgiving to their buttocks.

"Please don't do that again, ever." He said, a hand on his now painful tailbone, his face still burning.

Daphne was now on her back however, holding her stomach, as laughter he had never heard from her before filled the empty classroom, pure and uncontrollable. "Y-your r-r-eaction, was t-the be-est."

"Stop messing with me, it's not funny." He said, despite smiling himself.

"N-never." She managed to get out.

"..You're so silly sometimes." He said, as laughter began to rise up from within him at the sight of her. slowly feeling his heavy and sluggish body grow lighter.

She rolled on her side, legs coming up as her stomach began to hurt from laughing, a tear falling down her face.

They continued this for a while before it died down, snorting a few times near the end.

"I love it.. expect more soon, Harry." She said, coming to a sitting position, the look on her face making promises.

"Should I start running?" He asked, half joking, half serious. Standing up, and offering her his hand.

"No use, I'll shout a few embarrassing words, and I'll have you immobilized more easily than a stunner ever could." She said, grasping his hand, using it to get back up again on her feet.

"You must be the strangest girl I've ever met." He said, finding no other words to describe everything up to this point. From the point of running into her on the train, to her shenanigans, boastful nature, and shameless devising.

"Wrong choice of words, Harry, let me help you, for example; exceptional, remarkable, extraordinary, or phenomenal." Daphne said, counting a few on her fingers.

"I think I'll settle for bizarre." He said, nodding at his own choice.

"Fine, remember them for next time then." Said, huffing, turning her head away, looking back at him from the corner of her eye with a slight smile.

"You're impossible." He sighed, shaking his head.

"I guess you're possible then." Daphne replied, proud at her senseless wordplay.

A moment of silence briefly fell and Harry noticed how dark it was outside.

"We should wrap things up, Daphne. It's becoming late." He said, making her look outside surprised, as if noticing the dark sky outside for the first time.

"Hmm? Oh, yes. You're right." She said, sounding slightly disappointed. "You know the Waltz now in any case, let's continue to dance a little for the next few days to imprint it on your memory before starting on the next one."

"Yeah, probably a good idea." He said, holding the door open, letting her out of the classroom, her walk more of a strut than anything else.

"Sweet dreams, Harry. See you soon." She said, before turning away, likely going back to her common room.

"Likewise, Daphne." He said back, grimacing a bit at the thought of dreaming again.

* * *

"Uhm, what?" He asked having lapsed for a moment, missing half the sentence she had said.

"I said, what do you think we should do now?" She asked, looking inquisitively at him, indicating towards their potion.

"Add the ground Unicorn juice, and stir until it becomes purple." He guessed, blinking his eyes to clear up the blur that had briefly swept over his vision.

"No, Harry, we went over this ages ago. If they ask for grounded parts they really do need them altogether, not only to the juice to try and speed things up. That might have worked in other cases, but not here, we also need to wait with stirring until it turns green." She said, reminding him of a mistake he had made weeks ago.

"Oh right, I forgot." He said, shaking off the fatigue, and regaining his focus again on their potions assignment. The recent lessons were making less sense to him these days.

Harry inwardly cursed in his mind, he was beginning to make more mistakes, likely because of his sleep shortage, but he couldn't help it. He had so much to do with little time, sleep had to be exchanged for productivity.

Any sleep he did manage to get was sometimes ruined however, by his nightmares occasionally showing themselves, making him reluctant to go to sleep in the first place, unsure about what would await him if he were to close his eyes.

He had already been tired before, but things were adding up while the amount of free time he had available stayed the same. Other classes were drooping much like this one was, as lethargy would settle in from time to time.

He had occasionally thought about going to Madam Pomfrey and ask her for Dreamless sleep potions, but decided otherwise as he thought about the consequences. She would likely tell Dumbledore about his problems, not to mention that Dreamless sleep potions are far from the perfect solution, causing only more problems than solving if used for prolonged periods of time.

Hermione always made sure he went upstairs with Ron, but these efforts were unknowingly proven pointless, as he moved back out with his invisibility cloak when everyone slept, onwards to the Restricted Section in search of more accurate information on the Dark Arts.

So far he had mostly come across examples rather than clear explanations, telling symbolic and cryptic stories of figures in the past meeting their end, due to the corruption of their own well meant intentions and morals, leading them down towards the dark.

It had probably been the reason why he hadn't noticed them in the beginning, having skimmed through them, thinking the short stories to be introductions, and background to the Dark Arts rather than messages of actual danger.

A few other books had been more specific, telling much the same like Daphne had, saying that the Arts brought forth the risk of addiction to them. But Harry knew that it was a chance, not an inevitability. People like Moody used the same spells, and while the crazed Auror wasn't the most sane example, he was however; a very righteous one.

It seemed that some people either had the affinity to it physically, or became obsessed by it on a psychological level, both cases serving to infect the other sooner or later.

"Harry, you're adding too much stewed Mandrake!" Daphne called out, pulling him out of his musings, and back into their lesson, seeing that their potions had turned baby blue.

"Sorry, my bad. I lost it for a moment there. It probably shouldn't be blue then?" He said, quickly putting the Mandrake away.

"No, turquoise is the colour we are looking for." Daphne said, getting irked at the increase of mistakes he was making.

"Switch places with me, you get stuff prepared while I try to see if we can salvage it somehow." She said, moving to stand behind the cauldron.

"You got anything to say, or explain, Harry?" She asked, hinting none too subtly.

"I thought you would wait patiently?" He said, concentrating on the Chimaera leaves, so that he wouldn't cut himself while preparing them.

"And I will, you can easily tell me about your current problems without explaining any past experiences attached to it." She said, finding a loophole. "The past is something set in stone, there for you to deal with it. But this is about now, something we can still work on to better the outcome or situation."

"Sorry to disappoint you then, because I'm fine, Daphne." He said, dismissively.

"Yeah, sure, and Professor Snape would be delighted to smother you in his loving embrace." She said, sarcastically, forcefully stirring the potion, the bubbling liquid rising to dangerous levels as she did so.

He cringed at the thought of Snape coming even remotely close to him, and grew a bit nervous as he saw their potion threaten to spill with every stir.

"I think that Slughorn would be more willing to do such things than Snape, with him hating my guts and all." He said, wishing to banish the mental images already.

"You called for me?" Slughorn said, appearing behind them again, nearly making him drop his knife while some of Daphne's potion sloshed over the edge, as she had made a jerking movement from the sudden voice behind her.

"No, Horace. We didn't." Daphne said, in a calm voice that took some effort from her.

"Really? I could've sworn that I.. Well never mind that, how is the brewing coming along I-oh." He said, lapsing as he saw their potion, looking well below their usual quality. "This must be a first, What's wrong? Are some of my ingredients afoul?"

"No, Horace. It's just that Harry, likely had a bad night's sleep." Daphne said, giving him an accusing glance.

"How dreadful." Slughorn said, in a softer tone, thankfully being somewhat discreet, before taking a closer look at him. "Your partner is right, Harry, you look ready to fall under the effects of the Sleeping Draught! You should get a good night's rest after this."

"Thank you for your concern, Slughorn, and my apologies." He said, quickly wanting to close the subject, before it became a show again.

"Don't worry too much about the preparations, m'boy. It'll work out." Slughorn said, thinking that he had been worrying about the party.

"You two don't take this too heavily, better luck next time!" He said, moving past them to check other cauldrons.

Their usual banter was quite dim during the remainder of the lesson, Daphne looking like she was waiting for him to admit his problems. But he didn't, and the lesson ended with a potion that was passible, but not very good.

* * *

Guilt inducing memories flashed before his eyes, mixed with fearfull ones from the previous years; The Ministry, the cold and wet Chamber of Secrets, attacking Mr. Weasley, Cedric's lifeless body, the rattling breath of the Dementors, and Sirius's body arching gracefully through the archway; disappearing.

The visions suddenly stopped. "Sirius!" He heard himself call out in a mumble, jarring awake from the movements that gently rocked his body awake.

He shot for his wand, stopping halfway as he took in his surroundings, surprise at his location replacing for worry as he realized that he had fallen asleep in the library in the afternoon, having called out his godfather's name in his abrupt awakening.

He felt warm hands slide off his shoulders, making him look up from his seated position to his side where he saw the worried and curious face of Daphne lean down towards him.

"Had a bad dream, Harry?" She asked, giving no indication that she had heard him.

His eyes quickly shifted around them, seeing that other students had kept their distance from him, and hadn't noticed anything thus far.

"I, uh. Transfiguration assignment was rather boring, I must have fallen asleep halfway through." He said, forcing a shaky smile on his face.

"Sure, problem is that you actually have Potions in front of you, plus you have only a few lines written down." Daphne pointed out, no humor in her remark.

He looked down to the parchment he had been sleeping on, seeing that she was right, his jumbled mind having come up with an awful excuse in his haste to explain himself. "Oh. Yes..you're right, I guess I'm still sleeping."

Daphne's face took on a knowing look as she pulled out a chair and sat down next to him, moving closer to decrease the distance between them.

"I've seen, and heard enough signs, Harry. I don't know what things you precisely went through, but you are obviously having nightmares during the night, strong enough to haunt you immediately after falling asleep again, if what happened just now was any indication to that."

"I'm fine, Daphne. I simply fell asleep and happened to have an unpleasant dream, you're imagining things that aren't there."

"Dugbog shite, Harry!" she hissed, gripping his arm, making him look up as he was reminded of the first time they spoke with each other on the train ride.

"People don't just fall asleep after writing four lines of text in a public place, your performances also have decreased in every aspect." She said in a hushed tone, her eyes blazing.

He looked back to his blank assignment, willing it to give him the answers he needed to get out of his situation. "You are overthinking things, you only thought me to be better than before. The lessons have increased in difficulty, and my results slightly dropped in response."

"No, Harry. It's become especially noticeable; you have rings under your eyes, mistakes you make during our dancing are from your sleep muddled coordination, your reaction to catching the vines in Herbology is considerably slower, and during potions you make mistakes you normally wouldn't have made, had you been able to clearly use your mind." She said listing off multiple things she had noticed.

"Daphne, I'm not-"

"Please, Harry." She said, _begging _him, looking solicitously, while the grip on his arm tightening a bit.

He became silent for a moment, before continuing. "So what if I'm a little bit tired. I can handle this."

"Don't think yourself to be Merlin and Morgana combined. No one can carry all of their burdens alone." She said, frowning at him.

"You don't have to tell me the contents, Harry. not like this. Please just acknowledge it, you don't have to tell me anything else, just admit that you are having this problem. Don't lock these things inside you, there is no need for you to do so." She said, the grip on his arm and her tone having turned softer as she spoke.

She continued when he kept silent, staring at his parchment, unable to look her into the eye. "I can help you, Harry. I know some things about Occlumency, let me teach you to control your dreams. It's not the hardest thing you can learn with from it."

He looked back at her, surprised that she knew it, but even more surprised that the entity had been right in its advice, Occlumency could be used to ward certain dreams off. Could there be other things it might be correct about, now or in the future?

He soon focused back on Daphne however, seeing that she had been waiting for his reply.

"What about my memories, Daphne. I don't-no I can't show them to you, or anyone else for that matter." He said, thinking about his lessons with Snape and both the dangerous, and traumatic memories he held inside him.

"You think I would lower myself to assaulting your most sensitive memories?" She asked, looking insulted.

Her reaction, quickly struck him with guilt. This was the girl that was currently keeping a big secret for him, the girl he had gotten to know over the past months, the girl who told much about herself without him returning the favor. How could he have expected her to be willing to do those awful things to him…

"No, you wouldn't. I'm sorry, I…I don't know what I had been thinking." He said, ashamed.

"I already told you, Harry. I won't force it out of you. Please tell me when you can, and want to." She said, holding true to her word of leaving his past alone.

"Yeah." Was all he managed, unsure how to respond after having insulted her intentions.

"You admit it then? You are having trouble with sleeping because of your nightmares?" She asked, wanting confirmation.

"Yes." He said, with a soft sigh.

"..If I were to do this, how would we go about it?" He asked, turning hypothetical.

She smiled a bit after his acknowledgement, before answering him. "We'll begin by explaining you the basic's and fundamentals. I will also give you my book I have on the arts of the mind, so that you can read it for yourself while performing small exercises with it. Which hopefully show that you have the aptitude to lean it."

She waited for his response, and he nodded in return, gesturing for her to continue.

"We will learn you some simple and basic Occlumency shields if things turn out positive. I will focus on memories that are unimportant to you during this, something mundane like our class lessons. Things will be up to you after you have the basic shields."

"Only basic shields? Don't I need stronger ones?" He asked, confused as to why they would stop at basic and simple shields.

"No, Harry. because Occlumency, with its mental shielding is the main branch of the mind arts, and is used to protect yourself from Legilimency; attacks from outside. It's useless for the things you are looking for. Strong armor can't protect you from something already inside of you." Daphne said, revealing a while other side of Occlumency to him.

"Occlumency has multiple forms? Why should I learn to shield in the first place then? If this form is practically useless to me, I might as well skip it altogether." He said, still wanting to learn Occlumency if he had the chance to, but wondering why it seemed necessary in the first place, was it a requirement?

"Not forms, but branches. You will need to have basic knowledge, and experience from the main branch, in order to use the derivative forms, which each serve a different purpose." She said, clarifying his misconception.

"I see, what subsection of Occlumency am I looking for then?" He asked, curious as to what derivative he was looking for.

"Somniamency, if I remember correctly; the art of controlling your subconscious, thoughts, and dreams." She said, looking to have a little trouble remembering it, looking with furrowed eyebrows at her hands on the table as she thought about it.

"How do I go about learning it?" He asked.

"I don't know, Harry... It's one of the reasons why I will be lending you my book, I'm nothing special, below average even at Occlumency, I haven't memorized the whole book and Somniamency is something I never learned, nor spend much thought on. I'm afraid that the information, and methods in my book is all that you have available to learn it." She said, looking disappointed at leaving him with little help in the area.

"It's okay, you're helping me out a lot already." He said, softly.

"Good. See that it wasn't so hard, right? We might even have a solution on our hands already by talking things out, you didn't even have to give me any details." She said, encouragingly.

"Don't lay your problems in front of _yourself_, Harry. Lay them in front of _us_, there is nothing that we can't work out. Mark my words." Daphne said, confidently. Her eyes looking into his for a prolonged period of time, willing him to understand the weight of her words.

Harry nodded, managing to smile a bit, her words helping him. It felt nice, lifting a little bit of the weight that had been on his shoulders, and having come to a possible solution.

"Sure, Daphne." He said, still feeling mixed, despite his answer to her.

"Yeah you bet, Harry. Your debt to me is steadily building up isn't it?" Daphne said, playfully nudging him when she saw him smile again.

"Oh really, please do tell what 'debts' I owe you then." He said, questioningly.

"Well, you lost in our Herbology bet, I told you a lot about myself, I just proved myself to be the solution to your problem, I arranged a wonderful party for us in the future, AND allowed gloomy _you_, to take the wonderful _me_, to said party." She said, boastfully, listing off the things on her fingers.

He smiled, and shook his head at her in disbelief. "You're right about Herbology and being a help just now, but you mostly talk about yourself, rather than me asking, the party was shoved in my agenda by a certain someone, and you rather _forced_ me to take you to said party." He said, listing off his own things to her.

She feigned a long drawn out sigh. "You fret too much about the details, Harry. I do what's good for you." She said, shamelessly.

He laughed a bit. "In a _remarkable_ way, yes." He said, using one of the words she had given him as an example.

"I see that you are applying previous lessons, nothing wrong with your memory, luckily. It would be a downright shame if I had to repeat myself to you." Daphne said, haughtily, looking satisfied.

"Sure..By the way, where is Davis?" He asked, looking behind her, as if expecting her friend to jump out from behind a bookshelf.

"Asking for a girl with one in front of you, Harry? Maybe I should take back what I said about your memory, it seems that you are doing only half the job." She said, feigning disappointment.

"Jealous snob." He said, feeling brave, nearly snorting with amusement as he saw her recoil, her mouth falling open a bit, not having expected his response.

"You dare? I'll have you for that, Harry. You just wait." She said, quickly turning to grin in the same devilish way again, causing a bit of anxiety to rise up inside of him.

"Anyway, back to your friend, Davis.." He said, wanting to change their subject before she concocted a plan.

"She is in Astronomy class, along with your friend; Granger. And being on the subject of your friends, where is Weasley? Surely he isn't attending other classes" She asked, skeptical at the idea of Ron taking more lessons than necessary.

"No, he probably would rather pukes slugs than take more classes. Ron is on the Quidditch field with Ginny and the rest of the team, seems that they found a hole in their roster and are using it for an extra training." He said, explaining Ron's absence.

"Ah, Quidditch. You don't play it anymore, do you." She said, making it more of a statement than question.

"No, I don't, I mainly did it for the thrill of flying anyway." He said, thinking about having the earth far beneath his feet, away from everyone and everything. The business and problems of the world unable to reach him.

"Planning to go flying again sometime?" She asked, leaning forward, and resting her head on her hands.

"I will when I find some time for it." He said, wistfully.

"You should make some time for it then." She said, simply.

"Daphne, It's not-" He began, exasperated.

"-It's not what, harry? Not possible? Don't blabber nonsense. It's all up to you to decide how you invest your time." She said, interrupting him.

"It's not that simple." Harry said, stressing his words.

"Why not? Explain it to me otherwise, because to me it rather seems that you are forcing it upon yourself. Its fine if you want to defend your friends, but you don't have to sacrifice yourself in the process." Daphne said, not understanding his fervent race for progress.

He opened his mouth to retort but waited for a moment, he couldn't really blame her for thinking like she did, the knowledge she had on the situation was incomplete to say the least, being unaware of the exact events that had transpired throughout his school years, and only believing that there was a _chance_ of Voldemort focusing on him again, while they remained safe and sound inside the school's premises.

"You're right, I'll make some time free for it someday." He said, already knowing that he likely wasn't going to.

"Good, because I'll lend you a hand otherwise; placing your bum on that broom and gently pushing you off the stands." Daphne said, smirking.

"I'm perfectly fine with taking off by myself, thank you very much." Harry said, the image strangely vivid in his mind. "But back to the time investment; when will we start with the Occlumency?"

"..Tomorrow night, we can do it after our dancing practices from now on." She said, after being silent for a moment as she thought about it.

"Anything I should prepare or bring with me?" Harry asked. Thinking to be perfect for now, this way he wouldn't have to tell Ron and Hermione, he could solve it before the need would arise.

"Maybe a prodding stick so I can keep you awake." She jibed, halfheartedly at him.

"I'll manage without." He said, a bit sourly.

"Tomorrow, same time and location then. Now, how about we speed some things up for your Potions essay, Harry? I still have some time before my DADA starts." She said, taking his parchment and quill before he could even answer her.

He watched her work on his nearly blank essay. Writing down pointers as to where he should look, and what he should question. Her brows furrowing a bit from time to time as she worked ardently, the quill quickly running out of ink a she wrote, forcing her to dip it in the pot again, before continuing.

A lock of hair escaped from behind her ear, and fell down her face, giving him the strangest urge to place it back.

He wondered how her hair felt, it seemed a lot softer and lighter than his own, while still seeming different to Ginny's thin, and Hermione's bushy hair.

She absentmindedly began twirling the lock around her index finger, playing with it as she worked. Only adding more to his curiosity of discovering the feeling himself. Did it have the velvety feeling he thought it would have?

How did it manage to glow in a near golden hue when the sunlight would shine upon it? Was she using some kind of spell or potion? It almost seemed too elegant to occur naturally, but at the same time he couldn't imagine Daphne using magical enhancements on herself, someone as boastful as her would simply find it insulting to use such illusions upon herself.

In the end he just concluded it to be.…exceptional.

* * *

**Next chapter: Convincing each other.**

**Renata MM: Thanks, I'm glad that I can turn disgusting acts into sweet ones xD**

**Salce: Good to know that I'm leaving people curious x) Glad to hear that you're enjoying it.**

**Sennybee98: He promised that he would always keep the people around him in mind, not that he wouldn't look deeper into it.**

**Nice: I discovered, after carefully analyzing two bananas, and gently probing Facebook that Mr. Peebles is the world's smallest cat, okay….I'll see what I can do.**

**THE BLACK PRINCE OF DARKNESS: Oh, he'll be learning more.**

**trispectrum: A great analysis, just like Salce, thank you.**

**I thank everyone else too for their time invested reviews, please feel free to point out negatives too if you have them.**

**Remember when I said updates would be 3-5k? Ha. I sure did fail in that aspect.**

**His sleep depravity doesn't seem to sudden hopefully? the nightmares already started at the beginning of the story and I hinted towards his tiredness in earlier chapters, still it might seem sudden, or that's just me.**

**And yes. I did research into all these dances because I didn't know jack about them when I began, the things writing learns you..**


	13. Musings and Questions

**Disclaimer: The Harry Potter Universe and all the characters belong to J.K. Rowling.**

* * *

It had been the same for the past few days now. Everything was searched through and looked into, the books in Hogwarts had no useful information and spells for him anymore, he had struck a dead end while he still needed answers on the revival technique of Voldemort, and more knowledge on the Dark Arts.

He only had two options as it now stood; the entity in his mind, and Daphne.

He didn't want to ask the entity, it might have the answers he needs, but it would mean that he would be accepting more of him; he didn't even trust him completely, only partially. What did it even mean to accept more of it? What kind of effect would it have on him? Where did it come from and how could he get rid of it?

Asking any of those questions would prove to be useless as he would only get vague answers in return or became faced with the question of accepting more of him in return for explanations. He didn't want that, it would be a last resort if anything.

The other choice had only recently presented itself when Daphne told more about herself, if what she had mentioned was true then it might mean that her family possessed detailed books on the Dark Arts. Although it was still unsure whether or not she could help him, her family might have done away with the books and other items the moment they inherited it, after all; they held no interest in it as she had stated to him.

Then there was the problem of actually getting it even if she did have it. Hogwarts was being monitored on all exits and entrances, even the secret passageways. Dumbledore knew his castle well enough he had to give him that.

Finally there was Daphne herself, she had expressed her concern to his practice of the Dark Arts multiple times. It was clear that she didn't even like the thought of him practicing Bone-Breakers, which is one of the lesser Dark spells. Daphne simply didn't see the need for having to learn it as he did.

It was because he couldn't do complicated spellwork like Voldemort and Dumbledore had demonstrated to him in the Ministry. Harry had to fight back in his own way, speed and strength would be the attributes he would rely on in his battles. He could train his own speed and strength, but more powerful spells would help increase the base damage he could do, growing stronger himself would only help to increase that further.

"You okay there, Harry? You've been staring for a while." Hermione said looking ready to wave a hand in front of him.

He snapped out of his thoughts and made eye contact with her. "Hm? Oh yeah, lost myself in thought there for a moment. How are invitations coming along Hermione? Sorry that I'm not much of a help there."

"It's okay, Harry. You're very busy." Hermione replied watching Ron play chess with Seamus some distance away, having found someone to crush with the moving chess pieces. "I'm about halfway through the Gryffindors, it isn't all that time consuming since there are only a few people invite from each House."

"Then why the rush to get these invitations done by Slughorn?" He questioned from his seat across form her in the common room.

"Because each of those invited are allowed to bring their own date, who might also be in need of the supplementary lessons." Hermione answered, pulling out her DADA book.

"I see, things will need to be planned and organized accordingly." Harry said nodding.

"So, how are things coming along with Gre-Daphne in your lessons?" Asked Hermione in a curious tone.

"I'm pretty sure things will work out, the Waltz is completely stuck in my head now, and we'll likely start the next dance tonight." He said thinking back on their previous lessons

"I'm glad to hear that, it's a good thing you're a quick learner." She said switching in between reading and conversing with him.

"Yeah, It'll work out in time." He spoke reassuringly.

"Aren't you annoyed?" Hermione asked a bit suddenly, making him look up toward her.

"Hm? By what?" Harry asked wondering what she meant.

"You know…about what happened in detention, Slug Club, the party and dance instructions? It might seem a bit… scheming to others." She said carefully.

"What's wrong Hermione, you don't like her?" He asked a bit surprised, she had defended Daphne less than a week ago against Ron.

"Not that but, don't you find it rather sudden how _time invested_ she suddenly became in you?" Hermione asked staring at the text in front of her, not taking in the words.

"She is quite engaging, yes, shamelessly so, but it doesn't feel all that sudden to me, we've been pretty interactive throughout the lessons before the detention and Slug Club." He admitted as multiple memories flashed before his mind's eye.

"Neville told me it was quite the surprising for him to see her act like she did" Hermione continued.

"Surprised at the way she acted? How so?" Harry asked curious to know more about Neville's experiences with her.

"It's all from Neville's point of view and experiences from the past of course, but he says that she wasn't like that during the balls he saw her; Neville told me that Daphne was always polite and reserved, but never that..open."

"Really? Well I haven't really seen her with anyone besides Davis, so I can't really tell. Besides we have to be all proper and prim during events such as those right? Wouldn't be right to act otherwise." He said leaning backwards a bit, imagining the scene.

"I think she is a bit closed off in the beginning, yes. After all; it's not like we were best palls during or after our first lesson. Maybe she is one of those people who slowly open up, revealing their true personalities later on." He said musing out loud.

"Yes, but she is quite… enthusiastic around you, Harry." Hermione said likely thinking back toward the events of the Slug Club.

"So what are you trying to say, Hermione?" He asked wondering where she was going with all this.

"I..no, nevermind, Harry." Hermione began before stopping, returning to staring at the words in her book.

He looked at the parts of her face he could still see over the top of the book. "You can trust her Hermione, really." He said.

"You're right, harry, sorry. It's just that I'm a bit suspicious of some girl suddenly swooping in and orchestrating all these events, Ron feels very much the same." She said revealing thoughts that had probably been on her mind for some days.

"..I can understand that these events probably look weird from outside." He said trying to imagine a similar scenario happening to Ron and Hermione. "I guess that Daphne is much like the sea; calm at bay, but vicious and strong once you are in its currents."

"You found a good friend in her, didn't you, Harry? You always speak fondly of Daphne too." Hermione remarked seemingly having some trouble with giving him a truthful smile, as it didn't look all that natural.

"Well, yeah I guess." He said suddenly feeling a bit embarrassed.

She let out a small sigh. "I should probably stop complaining and give her the benefit of the doubt."

"It's okay, Hermione. I'm glad that you share your thoughts like you do."

"Feel free to do the same, Harry." She said, smiling a bit sadly.

He only nodded in response.

Hermione definitely knew that something was wrong, as she had hinted toward it multiple times; just now, during the Slug Club and a few times even before that. He wasn't sure about Ron; he either knows the same, or doesn't have a clue in the first place. But Harry could never know for sure, Ron was prone to surprise him with his insight sometimes.

Hermione might have the strong notion that he was having trouble sleeping due to his nightmares, but likely didn't know more than that, not about his research on Voldemort, and the Dark Arts neither his practice of it.

* * *

He had nearly arrived at their usual classroom, slouching forwards, his legs and feet feeling a bit heavy until he stopped before the familiar simple door.

He opened the door and went inside, music filling his ears again as he saw her sitting in the middle of the room on a chair. Representing the perfect example of patience, looking up from her clasped hands in her lap as Daphne heard him arrive.

"Evening, Daphne, early again I see." He greeted her.

"Hello, Harry, and yes, better luck next time." She greeted back, smiling as she stood up and walked toward him to meet in the center of the classroom.

Daphne took a dancing stance, holding up her arms for him to accept. "Ready to begin the Slow Foxtrot?"

"No time for pleasantries?" He asked stepping closer, her arms easily slipping around him.

"No, we have much to cover." She said beginning her instructions shortly afterwards.

The Foxtrot looked much like the Waltz with the difference being the tempo and some steps, and Harry fell into thought after he began repeating the basic steps, the previous lessons helping him adapt to the new dance.

He briefly glanced at her silent figure, she was being unusually quiet but not uncomfortably so, rather seeming to be quietly enjoying it.

He once again wondered what kind of thoughts were currently occupying her devious head, Daphne always seemed to make the strangest bends in the most unpredictable ways and moments, he basically had no idea at any given time what her next move would be.

She had worked with him in class, listened in on his conversations, followed him when he trained, made him come to the Slug Club, set him up as an instructor, and had him take her to the party.

Hermione only knew half of it and had worded it in a friendly way, staying true to her nature. But he knew what Hermione meant, and what it was; manipulation. He should have felt insulted and repulsed by it, for it was normally done for selfish reasons. Hoping to steer and influence everything around and about it.

But it didn't repulse him, sure it annoyed him when she suddenly came out with it in the open, but it didn't fill Harry with anger, it was executed in a different way, above cold calculations and profit yielding results. It was manipulation, fueled with good intent.

But that didn't mean he was just going to let it happen if he could help it, he had his own say in things.

All that was left for him to understand was why. Why had Daphne started following him, why did he have to come to the Club meetings, why did she want him to take her to the party, and why was she so intent on helping him.

Because he was famous? No, she had even showed distain for it when they met, nor had she ever given any indications that it even existed to her afterwards.

Because he was intriguing? Maybe..he didn't think himself to be interesting, just plain dangerous to others wih his mere presence. However it would explain her espionage on him, but at the same time it would lack the compassion required to make you help someone, to think and care for them.

He also wasn't a hero to look up to, for he didn't have the strength to save people, Daphne wasn't even the type to have an idol to look up to in the first place.

Because she fancied him? Impossible, he was looking quite haggard if the opinions of others were anything to go by from, besides she was on a whole other level, he couldn't possibly live up to her life and the society she lived in, nor the standards of the girl that was Daphne Greengrass. He had to be the next Merlin if he were to compensate for his past, his background, and his life under the cupboard.

All that was left for him was the same reason she had given to him herself during their detention; his company, maybe she just liked to have his presence, expanding their little friend circles with each other.

And he too wanted her company, but he had to be careful, she would be bothered by people if the rumors started running around, which could happen any day now that they 'volunteered' to be representatives, worst case scenario being that it went outside school to the attention of his enemies. Her family would be in danger, surely she was aware of this, a family of her status and history was going to be branded as traitors for being friendly with him.

Daphne turned her head to look up at him. "Something wrong, Harry? You seem troubled and very much in thought."

"Musings and questions." He said simply.

"Man is not what he thinks he is, he is what he hides, tell me, what goes through your mind?" She said calmly continuing the rhythm.

He paused for a moment before speaking. "I was thinking about what could happen next."

"Next?" Daphne asked prompting him to elaborate.

"Surely you have already thought about my position in the upcoming conflict in contrast to your own." Harry said voicing his thoughts.

Her expression sobered a bit. "If you are talking about the war then yes, I have, what are you trying to say?"

"Then you must have realized what could happen if you associate in the open with me, especially if it's in the same friendly manner as we always have. We don't have the excuse of a forced assignment anymore." He spoke seriously.

"I am fully aware of that, Harry." Daphne responded.

He frowned. "Then why did you continue anyway? Aren't you worried for your family?"

"Of course I am, but it wouldn't have made all that much of a difference in the end." She said, evenly.

"What? How so, what are you talking about?" He asked, confused, why wouldn't it make a difference? Voldemort used the purity belief of the Purebloods to gain followers; he couldn't go around indiscriminately killing Pureblood families only because they refused to partake in the war. She would be safe either way, right?

"We have already been visited multiple times by Death Eaters during the summer and throughout our school year, they also visit a lot of other magical families, hoping to recruit either manpower or gold for their cause." She answered.

He slowed their pace a bit at that, perplexed at what he heard. "They have come to your house?"

Daphne nodded. "Yes, we mostly stall things by pretending to think things over, but time will run out and we can't predict the moves a madman will take, will he force us to join so that he can get to our money, or Is the Malfoy fortune enough for now?"

"They probably won't be all that willing to accept our answer, rather slowly trying to coerce us into changing it for them."

He considered her words. "You didn't join the first war by doing this, so now you think he won't take no for an answer?"

"Yes.. the same trick won't work twice." She said a bit morosely.

He frowned. "But you would be safe either way right? They won't attack a family like yours. He needs to get the other families support and belief behind him."

"How can you be sure, Harry? We might be safe _during_ the war, but who can say what will happen _after_ the war? What kind of turn will our society take if they win? They might start concentrating themselves more on purity afterwards, cutting off Halfbloods from the Purebloods and arranging marriages for the best 'results'." She said looking uneasy at the end.

"Tracey might be one of those people, they weren't all that friendly against her and her mother when they came to visit their house. Only her father is Pureblood and it seemed to have mattered for those that had visited, it isn't their foremost focus, but it is still on their list."

"Then what are you, Tracey and your families going to do?" Harry asked wondering what they were going to do.

She fell silent for a moment before speaking up. "We want to join, Dumbledore. We think that it will offer us the best future and protection."

He nearly stumbled but quickly managed to recover. "What?.."

"Rumors had already started circulating during the first war of a group that opposed, and fought against the Dark lord himself and his followers. We seek to join the same resistance group your parents were in, you mentioned it yourself during the Slug Club." Daphne elaborated.

He looked at her for a moment, shocked that she had found use in the small deflective answer he had given her at the time before thinking about the convenience of it all.

"So, did your parents ask you to make contact with me or something?" He questioned turning a bit apprehensive at it all.

She turned to look him into the eyes. "I understand your suspicion for thinking so but no, Harry, we've been in this situation even before the start of our school year."

He held her gaze for a moment, trying to find any deceit in her eyes before smiling a bit as he found his answer. "Okay, although I sense a 'but' in your story."

"Yes, Tracey and her family have unlike us, a much better chance of joining Dumbledore, being Halfblood and more light."

"Why do you say so? Dumbledore often believes in giving people a chance to prove and redeem themselves, no matter who they are." He said, Snape quickly coming to the front of his mind.

She shook her head negatively. "I can say so because we have already tried, but it's hard to persuade someone to let you in on their secret resistance group with a long and Dark family line behind you. He knows that we aren't in league with the Dark Lord by looking at the first wizarding war but that isn't enough to convince him into letting us join."

"I see." Harry said falling silent.

But an idea suddenly struck him, there was a way he could help her and himself at the same time.

"Daphne, does your family have books on the Dark Arts?" He asked suddenly.

"Books?" She asked her tone surprised by his off topic question.

"Yeah, I guess we have some.." She said, carefully frowning a bit.

Harry continued at that, focusing his questions. "No, ordinary books, I mean the kind of books your father might have inherited from your grandparents."

"Why, Harry? What does it matter?" She asked defensively, breaking their dance.

He stepped a bit closer. "It matters a lot. Now did your family inherit them? Are they still in your possession?"

"..Yes, we inherited them and we still have them, it's only one book we have, it's a book our predecessors worked on, each generation adding more to its quality and contents. We have sold the rest as they were quite generic and excessive." Daphne answered reluctantly.

"What are the contents about?" He asked excited about the ways it could possibly help him.

"Spells, ideas, research, and more. It is a foul book, Harry. My father showed it only once to me to satisfy my curiosity after I had continuously whined for it, suffice to say that I never felt the urge to open it again after viewing some chapters of it with my father." She said hugging herself, visibly uncomfortable with it.

"The spells are strong then? Descriptive, detailed?" Harry pressed despite her discomfort, he had to know.

She nodded "Yes, they are…very much so."

"Then I wish to trade the book, Daphne." He said resolutely making her look up at him again in disbelief.

"For what could you possibly trade it? Me and my parents aren't all that keen on lending it out like some kind of library." She asked skeptically.

"For a piece of very important information; information that is being kept secret by me and Dumbledore. I'll tell you if you help me in return by lending me the book." He said inwardly smiling at his own idea, this way he could ensure a favor from her; possibly gaining access to the book while giving Daphne and her family a chance at the protection they need, and giving Dumbledore a little surprise on his own, this way the Headmaster would come to know what it feels like is like to be withhold from important information.

Her face remained skeptical. "What kind of information, Harry? What could possibly be so important that he'll spontaneously allow us to enter by speaking about it?"

"Just a few words actually, they won't make any sense to you, but they'll mean the world to Dumbledore, he'll let your family join both out of necessity and in the knowledge that I trust you with it."

He saw her pausing to think; something he didn't see her do all that much, not like this, for Daphne hadn't expected this, hadn't expected him to fling this sudden chance toward her at the cost of something she didn't like.

She remained silent, Daphne's mind in thought with her eyes and brows moving a bit as they shifted with her racing thoughts. Conflicted would be the word to describe her expression.

"And you won't tell me if I am unable to get the book from my parents? You'll leave me and my family unprotected?" She asked seemingly having come to some answers.

He smiled a bit at her Slytherin nature coming out. "No, don't be silly, I will help you regardless, but what I'm doing for you carries a lot of weight, I'm asking you to help me out in return."

"I also want to help you out, Harry, but I don't want to give that.. malevolent book to you, it's nothing you ever want to look into." She said, shaking her head in the negative.

His smile dropped a bit at her unwillingness. "I need to look into it, please Daphne. Name any other price then."

"I don't think there is anything worthwhile, Harry." Daphne said looking toward the ground between them.

"There must be; you want to know more about me and my past right? Do you want me to tell about my recent school years, explain the rumors, my experiences, my dreams?" He proposed willing to offer more important things.

"I don't want to learn things that way from you, Harry, not through some deal for a Dark book. I will keep my word and not force the past out of you." She replied declining the offer, looking to be slightly tempted nonetheless.

"It doesn't matter, I'll tell you anything if need be." He said turning desperate at seeing one of the only options he had left slip away.

Daphne sighed. "Is it really that important to you then, Harry? You would be willing to tell me things about yourself you wouldn't otherwise?"

"Yes." Harry said resolutely, holding her gaze.

She broke eye contact with him to study the stone floor again in thought.

"How am I even supposed to get it? I hardly ever wanted anything to do with it. I can't just write them a letter saying that I want to have a look at the book I never even once glanced at after discovering it."

He was quick with his response. "Then tell them the truth, tell them about our trade and that it's meant for me."

Daphne raised an eyebrow. "Tell them that one of the great paragons of Light seeks our Dark tome?"

"It'll sound strange to them, but I'm sure that you can convince them otherwise." He told her convincingly.

"I guess that it is one of the better choices, I would have to explain things either way if I am to convince them of saying your magical words to Dumbledore." She said shrugging.

Harry nodded in agreement. "Exactly."

"And what about getting it inside Hogwarts? Have you thought about that? This place is heavily guarded for anything going inside and outside, and here we are trying to smuggle a Dark book inside Hogwarts." Daphne questioned inclined her head downwards, indicating the castle.

He deflated a bit at that but quickly resumed. "I have, and I'm still working on that..How about this; we make the deal and see whether or not we can get it inside Hogwarts, while you get your end of the bargain either way, since I won't be abandoning you and your family."

She looked sideways, thoughtful for a moment. "So it's all a big _if _for you.. either way I have three conditions that have to be met, two for if we get the book and one right now."

"Fine, anything, just name it." Harry said in acceptance for his chance.

She held one finger up, her face determined. "First; I will join your practice lessons, Harry, to watch over you, I want to have a say in what you learn from it if I am giving it to you."

"What? No!" He exclaimed at the demand, he had been expected some things but Daphne being there the whole time?

Her expression remained unchanging. "Yes I will, I don't want you looking into that book without some sort of guidance."

"Guidance?" He asked sarcastically. "You are overreacting, Daphne, you act as though I'll turn into some kind of evil wizard by merely looking at it."

"Maybe I am overreacting, maybe I am not. I simply won't leave things to chances. Besides it should pose no problem for I am probably wrong in the entire possibility of it happening as you yourself say so." She said easily.

He frowned. "But you still need to be there every time? You don't believe me capable of handling it?"

"I do believe you capable, Harry, but I don't want to risk it in case something _does_ happen." Daphne said resolutely.

"Second; I will keep the book with me to ensure rule one stays effective." She continued, not waiting for his answer.

Well yeah, Of course, he thought resisting the urge to roll his eyes.

She began to smile a bit, making him feel apprehensive at what was to come. "Lastly; you will get more sleep, I'm not putting up with you being an Inferi all day anymore, you will be sleeping here if I notice that you have a shortage. I will wake you if you have any nightmares, while I make my own time useful by getting some work done in the meantime."

"What…" He uttered dumbly. "Sleep here? What about the dancing lessons and Occlumency?"

"Yes, Harry, sleep here. This can't continue on like this, you're only half awake during lessons, it will only be a temporary solution, at least until you are able to successfully keep your nightmares at bay. We might still be able to do some dancing and practicing but it will be short, for you will need your sleep." She said crossing her arms.

"I don't have t-"

"-Quit your whining, Harry. Whatever it is that you are doing can wait, you will get some decent amount of sleep or I will help you with getting it." Daphne cut through.

He eyed her disbelievingly. "You can't just tell me to fall asleep here, Daphne."

"Maybe not, but it would still be better than doing nothing right?" She responded simply.

"So we won't be doing anything at all if I'm a bit tired? Even if I can't fall asleep?" Harry asked incredulously.

Daphne shook her head. "Correction; _you_ won't be doing anything, _I_ will be doing some homework."

"Come on, Daphne, this is ridiculous, we can do without this condition." He said, giving it another try.

"Stop being such a hardhead, Harry. Just get yourself a decent amount of sleep, you won't even notice my third condition if you do, simple as that." She said frowning at the lack of cooperation.

He lightly glared at her, now he had to get enough sleep so he could make use of the time he had with the book and Daphne, otherwise he would spend it on a couch, sleeping.

But then again, he thought as more ideas came to him; he had more time now for it anyway, It was only recently that he had hit his dead end, looking any further in the books that were in Hogwarts would be useless, he might as well use it for some sleep so that he could make use of their time in the evening. Fact still remained that he needed her book, he didn't have anything else left within reach.

"Fine." He said, relenting after his own thoughts had convinced him.

"Good, but don't expect me to go to the ends of the earth for that wretched book." Daphne said, truthfully.

He nodded in understanding. "I see, thank you anyway."

"Now as for what you need to tell Dumbledore so that you can join the Order, tell him this; 'born as the seventh month dies.'" He said giving part of the Prophecy that Voldemort already knows.

"Is that all? What does it mean? And the Order?" She questioned. Having no clue as to what it all meant.

"The group is called the Order of the Phoenix." He said answering one of her questions.

She looked thoughtful at the name before realization suddenly dawned upon her face. "The Order! You briefly mentioned it in the Three Broomsticks during the first Hogsmeade trip!"

"Three Broomsticks?" Harry repeated thinking back on the things he had said at the same, yeah now that he thought about it; he had probably mentioned it after his tirade of Mundungus stealing Sirius's belongings to Ron and Hermione. "Ah yes, you mean one of the occasions where you spied on me."

"Forgive and forget, Harry, you'll never become happy otherwise." Daphne said easily. "Now, what does 'born as the seventh month dies' mean?"

He shrugged. "Nothing much, Daphne."

"Yes it does, you said it was very important information, Harry, what is it about?" She pressed.

"It concerns my past and present, it doesn't apply to you." He said neutrally but still a bit warningly.

"Harry-"

"-I thought you wouldn't press for information regarding my past?" He said not so subtly reminding her of her own promise.

"You're right about that." She said obviously dissatisfied as her posture was stiff with her lips thinned out. "I won't ask any further and trust you on this."

"Don't worry, it will work, I'll be right here to punish if otherwise." He said in a lighter tone.

"Good because I will." She said smiling a bit again. "I'll make haste in sending my letter, telling them of everything that we have discussed and asking for the book. We'll see what we will do next depending on their answer, right?"

"Then we will leave it at that and continue when I receive their reply, of course they too will keep silent against others about the book you might receive in return." Daphne said after he had nodded his confirmation. "Let's move on to the topic we had originally planned for tonight; Occlumency."

"Yeah, nearly forgot about it." He said watching her rummage through her back to retrieve a book from it, the cover reading 'The mind, going deeper than your average trunk'.

"Well then, let's have a seat, Harry, we've been standing the whole time. And since we still have a bit of talking to do, we might as well do it a bit more relaxed." She said, taking out her wand and levitating one of the desks back from the wall toward them.

She proceeded to tap the desk, likely intending to transfigure it into some kind of couch or chair. He saw it shift shape, before proceeding to watch it melt back into into the desk it originally was. Daphne seemed to ignore the failure and repeated her action with a resolute expression, only to be met with the same result.

"..Just a moment." She said tensely.

"Is something wrong, Daphne?" He questioned carefully after watching multiple tries end up with results that became even worse.

She looked ready to break the desk in two. "Nothing at all, only a slip of the hand."

He watched in an awkward silence as she continued to try and transfigure the desk in front of him, before finally managing to morph it into some kind of mutant furniture after she had very nearly hit the desk with her wand as if it was some kind of beating stick.

"There, have a seat, Harry." She said still managing to sound proud as she indicated for him to have a seat in the malformed desk that had taken the shape of a couch while still retaining its wooden texture and square shaped structure.

"Daphne." He said, looking apprehensively at the very uncomfortable looking…couchdesk. "What is that?"

"It's our couch of course, can't you see that?" She said simply, breathing a bit faster from her strained efforts.

He had to refrain from sighing in front of her, Daphne was simply incapable of admitting failure even when it was right in front of her. "Do you need some help with making it more… comfortable?"

"I guess that you could do some tweaking.." She said airily, looking everywhere except for the place where her creation stood.

"Why do you want to transfigure it into a couch anyway? Couldn't we just grab two chairs instead?" He asked wondering why she went through all this trouble.

She made a nonsensical gesture. "Because I want to."

"Right, was there anything that felt a bit..off?" Harry asked indicating toward the…thing.

"Well, everything went perfectly of course, except for the resource input maybe." She said, crossing her arms at the last part.

He looked questioningly. "Resource? What do you mean?"

"I might have been in need of more energy to compensate for the mass of the couch, since the desk isn't as heavy and dense as the couch sized for two to three persons would have been." She murmured.

"So it needs more strength?" He asked not feeling all for surprised, he didn't imagine Daphne to be much of a powerhouse, she was more the type for intricate spellwork rather than force, at least as long as she could keep her patience.

"Let me have a try." He said ignoring her weak protests and tapping the half-transformed object, changing it back into the desk it had been originally.

"Make it a two seater if you're going to try either way." He heard her instruct from his side.

He tapped the desk, pushing a reasonable amount of magic through his wand while bringing one of the couches he had seen from Slughorn's office to the forefront of his mind for reference. He soon felt his wand tug reluctantly in the same way it always did with these kinds of performances, but was satisfied to see the desk change into one of the couches from Slughorn's office, looking much like he had envisioned it.

She looked at the result, absentmindedly running her hand along one of the soft armrests. "Pretty nice."

"So." He said seating himself on one side. "Occlumency, let's get started."

"Yes, now like I had mentioned in the library; I will introduce you with some information on it before we start." She said seating herself quite close to him despite the available space she had for herself, their arms and legs making contact with each other.

However, he didn't feel much desire to move away from her, it felt quite natural and comfortable actually, he guessed the dancing lessons could be blamed for familiarizing him with their closeness.

"First of all; what do you know about Legilimency, Harry?" Daphne asked while tracing the spine of the book with her finger.

Her question made him think about the false memory he had seen of Sirius being tortured in the Ministry. "You use it to intrude someone's mind, looking at their memories while also being capable of planting false ones."

"Very good." She said nodding and opening the book on her lap, quickly traveling through the pages before stopping on a specific page and resting her finger below a paragraph of text. "Here is the description in the book. 'Legilimency is the skill of extracting memories and feelings from within another person's mind, this is done by forcing it free from the person's own grip and protection by the use of magic to temporarily rupture the bond between mind and memory.''

He nodded, interested in how it seemed to work in more detail.

''Rupturing the bonds can cause pain for the person whose memories are being extracted from depending on the force, speed, and intent of the intrusion.'" She said continuing to read the paragraph.

"Wait." He said realizing something from the explanation. "This means that it isn't always painful?"

Daphne shook her head. "It isn't, the biggest factor depends on whether or not I were to intrude your mind with neutral, friendly or hostile intent and emotions. After that comes the force and speed in equal values."

"And do more aggressive attacks help with speeding up the learning process?" He asked frowning a bit.

"I don't know for sure in any theoretical aspect, my father and I never tested it nor does the book describe it being a faster method." She said truthfully.

"You learned Occlumency from your father?" He asked a bit surprised, trying to imagine Daphne and her father in the same situation he and Snape had been in.

"Oh, yes I did, I guess you can call it a family tradition to teach your children the mind arts, at least it is in mine." Daphne said shrugging.

"I see, you can continue." He said inwardly cursing Snape. The stupid bat had been giving him headaches and painful intrusions on purpose! Unable to control his own petty jealousies of him, it didn't even help him in his lessons, at least not that he or others knew of.

"Your emotions and intents shape your magic accordingly, changing it from the controlled, focused and fluid intrusion which friendly emotions bring, to a blunt and spikey from anger, lashing out freely and uncontrollably." She said elaborating further, a bit caught up in her own subject.

"'More skilled Legilimency can be capable of detecting lies from those unprotected, and could even plant fake memories inside another person's mind. The counter skill to Legilimency is Occlumency.' This is the last of the summary on Legilimency, got any questions?" She asked after finishing it.

"Yes..how are fake memories implanted?" He asked wanting to know how the catastrophe with Sirius had been allowed to happen.

"I believe through the sense of false security." She said tentatively before flipping some pages of the book and resting her finger on a paragraph of text. "Here; 'Skilled Legilimency are able to implement false memories by creating one in their own mind with the use of Occlumency, and slowly slipping it in into the person's mind, usually with the use of a distraction so that the person is unaware of the whole process.' So just as the book says; you distract your target while carefully placing the memory."

He only nodded feeling revolted as he realized that Voldemort had been messing inside his head while he had busied himself with the stupid corridor.

She flipped through some pages after having answered him before looking back up at him. "What do you know about Occlumency, Harry?"

"That it is about closing off your mind from intruders by controlling your thoughts." He said using the little knowledge he had gained from Snape's lessons.

"That sums it up pretty much, yes." She said while indicating toward the book again. "Here is the summary on Occlumency. 'Occlumency is the counter skill against Legilimency, preventing them from discovering thoughts or memories which contradict one's spoken words or actions by relying on mental focus and effort to protect the user's memories and authenticity from the attacks and dangers a Legilimens brings. Those more skilled in the area can be capable of creating false memories serving to distract or deceive any Legilimens that manages to invade the mind, hoping to fool them completely or long enough before pushing them back out.'"

"Quite the detailed explanation again, but does the same apply here when the Legilimens is pushed back out? Can the intent from the Occlumens cause some kind of whiplash against the person who is intruding?" He asked.

"Yes, you can, your magic can lash out in retaliation by slamming in on the presence that is the Legilimens in your mind, this gives, much like the rupturing between the bonds; pain for the opponent." She said answering his question.

"You know quite some things about it already, have you been able to read some things about it already somewhere?" Daphne asked looking surprised at the amount of understanding he was displaying.

"Yeah, Hermione knew a thing or two." He said running his hand through his hair, not wanting to explain his experiences with Snape and the reasons for doing so.

"I see, now let's continue to the practical area with the basis in our minds." She said going through the pages again before stopping. "Here it is; 'Occlumency is practiced and learned by continuously repelling the attacks of an invader, while Legilimency is learned by invading another person's mind and searching through their memories.' What is the difference when trying to learn these two, Harry?"

He answered after a few moments to process the given explanation. "The difference is that for learning Occlumency you need a Legilimence while those learning Legilimency don't need an Occlumence."

"Correct, Harry. Learning Legilimency does not require an Occlumence, however being pitted against one will speed up the learning process as you will have to breach their defenses. Those who wish to learn Occlumency need to be attacked however so that they learn to control their magic and mind in a defensive manner." She said smiling.

"That's how the main branches of Occlumency and Legilimency work, we'll start your first Occlumency exercises next time." She said suddenly.

He took a quick glance through the windows, seeing the cloudy but still light sky outside. "Next time? Why? We still have plenty of time left."

"I said so before and you agreed to the terms Harry; I will not work with you being some kind of reanimated corpse." Daphne said sounding as if she thought herself to be a saint.

"How about no, leave the sleeping for next time, Daphne." He responded not in the mood to stop now.

Daphne shook her head. "No, we will be continuing tomorrow for you have a lot of sleep to catch up on, you will get some rest instead exerting yourself more."

"I'll get enough sleep tonight." He said trying to make her to drop it.

"What is so different about tonight then, Harry? You haven't even learned Occlumency yet, let alone Somniamency, I don't think tonight will be all that special compared to the others then, unless you yourself will be doing something different this time. She said skeptically.

"It's because I'll be going to bed earlier." He said feeling like a child for phrasing it like that.

"A good start but not very affective if we want to see improvement more quickly, you'll still be tired tomorrow." Daphne responded unconvinced.

"I'm fine right now and I'll be even better tomorrow, Daphne, you're exaggerating." He said trying to make her see that it was unnecessary.

She crossed her arms again, a sign that didn't bode well. "You're right about your performance tonight but I'm not going to pummel your mind with Legilimency attacks; no matter how pain free they may be, it is still an exhausting experience to push out enemies from within your mind."

He fell silent for a moment, remembering how he had always crawled back to the common room and into his bed after each lesson with Snape, his body having felt disconnected from his mind and will, not to mention how his own head would always painfully throb and spin.

"You probably have a point there." He said begrudgingly before continuing. "But I'll be fine either way."

"Oh? And I thought that you had promised to sleep if I deemed it necessary in our agreement?" She questioned, phrasing it much like he had done before.

"I did.." he grumpily admitted.

"Then you'll keep it right? I would be deeply disappointed to see you break it." She said laying it on thick.

"Uhuh." Was all he said in response.

"I really thought you to be a person of your word, Harry, just like me." Daphne continued still managing to compliment herself in the process.

"Ok, fine, you're impossible damnit!" He exclaimed giving in, smacking one of his hands on the armrest.

Daphne grinned in victory. "I knew you would see reason, Harry, being the insightful person that you are."

He stopped as he realized something. "And what if i never started the deal for the book, Daphne? You wouldn't have been able to make your demands in that scenario, would we be doing Occlumency right now in that case?"

"No, I merely used the opportunity." She responded grinning devilishly as she had done the same as in their detention with Slughorn. "We would have come back to this point either way, except that I might have started using stunners to force you, so you should be happy with this development."

"Whatever." He said annoyed. "So what now?"

"I think you should begin by relaxing and closing your eyes, most people tend to go to sleep like that." She said seriously.

"You're so knowledgeable.." He drawled sarcastically, closing his eyes nonetheless.

"Why thank you, Harry." He heard her say sounding genuinely flattered.

"This also the reason why you wanted to transfigure the desk into a couch instead of grabbing some chairs?" He questioned opening his heavy eyes again to look at her.

"Maybe, maybe not." She said noncommittally, trying to remain vague even though it was painfully obvious.

He smiled a bit and closed his eyes again, it was heartwarming in a way.

"You can't sleep like that, Harry, relax more." He heard her voice say to him considerably closer now, before feeling her hands slip into the back of his head and neck, guiding him down and backwards, against the back of the couch so that he rested on it comfortably.

"You really are stubborn, doing something..like..this. Harry said feeling his body sunk into the couch as he sighed, already feeling sleep draw closer to claim its chance.

"Maybe you should have taken my advice from the beginning then." She replied sounding amused.

"..Say isn't Davis lonely during evenings like these?" He questioned wondering whether or not he was complicating things for her.

"We're together pretty much the whole day already, Tracey also gets along nicely with my sister, she won't be all that lonely. Pretty much the same story as your own friends right?" Daphne responded lightly.

"Yeah.." He said sleepily. "I may..mumble a bit..in my..dreams."

"Don't worry, Harry. I'll be right here." He heard Daphne say, her voice sounding far away, maybe even feeling her hand comb through his hair.

* * *

**Thank you for your thoughts and opinions, hope to hear them again no matter their positivity.**

**Not much else to say this time.**


	14. Malfoy and Nott

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter Universe and all the characters belong to J.K. Rowling.

* * *

"So many rumors these days, don't you think so too, Greengrass?" Tracey heard a voice call out which she quickly recognized to be from Theodore Nott causing her to cringe and stiffen a bit at the unpleasant prospect of Daphne and herself having to talk to him.

She looked up from her Witch Weekly magazine as Nott seated himself in an armchair opposite from them, taking on a nonchalant pose as he focused on Daphne not even taking the smallest of efforts to acknowledge her existence.

Theodore had short spiky hair with a figure that was long and a bit stringy, but had become much more confident and arrogant in the time in which Malfoy had gone silent, using the connections he had always maintained in the background and this opportunity to come forth as the new 'leader' of their house.

The fact that his father was now in Azkaban didn't seem to bother him in the least. And maybe with good reason as there had already been a mass outbreak in the past, he was probably just waiting for another one.

She and Daphne had managed to steer away from much of the on goings, up until this point as the drifting rumors had gained enough volume to be heard for digging people like Nott. Who find it necessary to rectify such things and take it upon themselves to address the problem.

"The rumor mill never stops, Nott, at least not at Hogwarts." Daphne said from her left already having laid down her book as she replied, looking much like herself; not all that happy to be conversing with him.

"Indeed, they never do, do they?" Nott questioned more to himself than her as he didn't wait for Daphne's answer and continued. "And they never have been all that boring either, right?"

"They fluctuate in proportion and credibility, yes." Daphne answered simply.

Nott grinned a bit and shifted a bit in his seat, crossing his legs while putting his arms on the armrests. Taking on an air of superiority. "Lately there have been even more interesting ones than those from the past years, especially those surrounding Harry Potter."

Daphne shrugged indifferently, but Tracey knew it rather to be out of suspicion to his inquiring. "Really? Well I guess people get more creative over time."

"Precisely, the thing is; they don't even sound all that far fetched despite their absurdity this time. Forget fighting off one hundred Dementors, killing a Basilisk, leading some sort of defense group, and things like actually competing in the Triwizard tournament in a fair way; he could never do any of those things anyway." Nott said listing off various examples, likely irking her friend with each word he said.

"Well I'm sorry to say that I'm not that much in touch with others Nott, pray do tell what kind of rumors seem to be bothering you." Daphne said in a tone that was borderline sarcastic, her face set in a frown that had unknowingly come across her face throughout his telling.

"Ah yes, they are about the upcoming masquerade; wonderful idea by the way, but they say that you and Potter _volunteered_…_together_ to be the representatives _and_ dance instructors, absurd! Don't you think so? As if you; one of our high standing and Pureblooded witches would ever consent to work together with him, right?" He asked laughing at the prospect.

They remained silent throughout his laughter until it faded and he abruptly turned serious again, the smile falling from his face faster than a wizard without a broom. "I mean the lessons were predetermined, I myself too am paired up with that airhead Lavender Brown, but I'm really starting to have my doubts about this particular rumor though, for you appear to be quite friendly with Potter during our lessons. Please do reassure my feelings by telling me this to be untrue."

"I guess I could but then I would be flat out lying to you, confusing you even more in the end with all the conflicting images and rumors around us." Daphne answered sounding not all that friendly despite her smile.

Nott face took on an expression of pity at her answer, which even Crabbe and Goyle could identify as fake. "They are true then? How horrible, did Potter do something to you? Did he threaten, assault or corner you in any way? He is quite prone to psychotic outbursts after all."

Tracey saw the tips of Daphne's fingers turn white at the pressure she was exerting on the book she held. "Thank you for your concern, Nott, but such incidents did not occur, I find working with Potter quite pleasant and as such deemed him fit for the jobs surrounding the party, having a partner in the opposite house would also serve well for the invitations, communications, and organizing."

"Really? Well at least half of those reasons make sense, but you genuinely liking to work with Potter is quite strange however." Nott said feigning to be in deep thought as he put a hand to his chin.

"I too didn't think too much of Potter at the beginning but that changed after some time, maybe you should also give it a chance with Brown, Nott. The snake which cannot cast its skin has to die, as well as the minds which are prevented from changing their opinions."

"A beautiful metaphor, Greengrass, but I would rather not." He said looking affronted. "I however, see that your opinion is steadfast. At least, it is for now."

Daphne nodded mutely, both her and Daphne believing the conversation done and over, only to be disappointed as Nott continued.

"But returning to the topic of the masquerade, I noticed something equally strange." He said as he adjusted his robes a bit smoothing out invisible wrinkles.

"I noticed that the invitations in the Slytherin house are seemingly finished while I have yet to receive my invite, however I am a patient man and can understand any problems and delays that may occur, which explain my reasons for keeping quiet until now." He explained to them in a forgiving tone and giving a smile that had a foul look to it.

Daphne gave an cold apologetic smile that didn't show much compassion. "No mistakes have been made, Nott. You are simply not invited to the party."

"Oh? How so?" He questioned sitting up a little more straight in attention.

"I wouldn't know, Nott, maybe it has something to do with your _background. _Horace is quite picky with anyone he chooses to have further contact with." Daphne spoke shrugging as she answering.

Nott frowned at the implication, but was quick to speak again. "I see, however we could likely work our way around this by having you take me to the p-"

"-Nobody wants to take you to the party, save yourself from falling by not taking the leap." A new voice said interrupting Nott, and taking the words from Tracey's mouth before she had the chance of uttering them.

Nott's left eye twitched at the remark, sliding focus to see Astoria enter his view after which he gave that foul smile again, watching her seat herself to Tracey's right on the couch.

"Ah, the youngest Greengrass, how nice of you to join our conversation, maybe you could help me convince your sister to see the best choice as to whom should be escorting her to the masquerade." He drawled arrogantly, ignoring her earlier remark entirely.

Astoria crossed her legs and put her fingers to her temple, taking on a pose of thought. "Oh? Who are you thinking about then? Can't be you of course, since we are looking for the _best._"

"Your little sister is quite straightforward, Greengrass, overly so, maybe you should make her aware of this, lest she end up in _unfortunate_ situations." Nott said sounding to be very nearly threatening the both of them, as he turned back to Daphne, only the ghost of a smile left on his face.

"Astoria, be a little more polite." Daphne responded blandly, not looking away from Nott as she spoke.

"Sorry Mr. Nott, I'm still a bit young so I speak my thoughts rather quickly." Astoria apologized in an overly sweet voice and smile.

Nott didn't look all that satisfied with the apology but continued. "No matter, we all make…mistakes."

"But back to the original topic; Daphne Greengrass, I will allow you to accompany me to the upcoming masquerade, I expect you to have a fitting dress to harmonize with my attire." He said uncrossing his legs and smiling in what was probably an enchanting smile to him.

"A real shame, Nott, for she already has a date." Tracey said being happy to shove it in his face, already knowing whom Daphne was going with.

"I see." was all Nott responded with, taking a small moment to glance condescendingly at her before turning back to Daphne. "Tell me, Greengrass…who is the lucky man?"

"I would rather keep my date a mystery, Nott, you see he's quite busy and secretive with pretty much anything he does, it will likely please him to do what I can in that regard. Although I do thank you for the idea of matching attires; it should serve to deliver a clear message as to whom your with." Daphne responded managing to sound somewhat pleasant.

"I see. A shame for all of us, really." He said in a sigh, standing up and straightening his robes a bit before walking away from them. "Come see me should you ever.. change your mind, good night."

They didn't say anything in return and waited until he had walked away.

Astoria was first to respond in a disgusted voice. "Ergh, he has become even more obnoxious than Malfoy, his slipperiness has increased tenfold , a snake isn't even the appropriate animal for him anymore, a slug would fit him a lot more, too bad he isn't as slow though."

"Malfoy is not the only one who has changed, yes. Nott is still very active in his new found position." Daphne said from her left, looking at the cover of her book.

Tracey silently agreed with her, things had changed a lot compared to their previous years in which Malfoy used to parade through the hallways pestering younger students as he went, and spreading rumors of Potter as he lounged in the common room with multiple Slytherins always hanging around him.

Malfoy had relinquished the rights and advantages of being a prefect and had stopping parading, talking, pestering and boasting. Even silently stepping down from being the patriarch in the house, opting to spend his time outside the common room to stay merlin knows where or by staring broodingly into the fireplace in deep thought, anxiety being etched on his face.

She had followed him while Daphne had gone after Potter, but she had come back with little results unlike Daphne. Tracey had crept some distance behind him all the way to the seventh floor only to lose him after he had sped up his pace. Leaving her puzzled with an empty hallway after she had caught up to his trail.

Tracey hadn't taken much opportunities after that; she feared that Malfoy might have known that she had been following him, she couldn't tell from his behavior but it had probably been the better thing to do, giving him less suspicion that it was her or that he had been followed at all in the first place.

She wasn't giving up though, Daphne might not believe Malfoy to be capable of much but Tracey definitely felt uncomfortable with how much he had changed and how he was acting these days. Sure his father might have been put away in Azkaban for the time being, but she didn´t believe that to be the reason he underwent such changes. No, Malfoy was under pressure by something, and it weighed very heavily on him.

She was going to find out what.

"What was that about, Daphne? You and Nott never talked much, why is he suddenly interested in going to the masquerade with you?" Astoria asked turning to look at her sister.

Daphne sighed from the whole ordeal. "Probably just another way to show the house that he is the one to keep everyone in line, that he is the greatest and the best now; not that Malfoy was but you get what I mean."

Tracey nodded silently and looked at the door he had left through. "I don't think Nott has given up though."

"Probably not. He likely has a good idea as to whom I'm going with, we better stay on our guard for whatever it is he will do next." Daphne said putting her book away into her bag before turning toward her younger sister. "You too, Astoria, don't provoke him, stay clear of trouble if you can."

"Tsch, we can stomp him whenever we want, just like Longbottom did." The youngster replied crossing her arms grumpily, referring to the incident of Longbottom having hit Nott squarely in the face. "Anyway who is your date for the party, Daphne? You better tell him of the incoming nuisance that is Theodore Nott."

"I will tell him, Astoria, in fact very soon." Daphne said standing up. "It probably won't make much difference anymore with people connecting the dots but do try not to shout it from the highest tower in Hogwarts."

"Yeah, yeah, big deal just spill it already." Astoria said impatiently.

"I'm going with Harry." Daphne replied offhandedly.

Her sister's head quickly snapped up to Daphne from her seated position, a silence briefly holding as they looked at each other. "Oh..those dots. Well it's both logical and strange at the same time."

Daphne smiled a bit, glad that her sister didn't explode. "Good that saves us some time then."

"Do our parents know?" Astoria asked curiously with a bit of anxiety.

"They do since a few days ago, their reply should arrive soon." Daphne answered.

Astoria fell into thought, her eyes fixated on the floor between them. "This is going to change quite some things for us, isn't it?"

"It already has, I'll tell you more when I can." Daphne said giving an encouraging smile.

Tracey looked at Daphne in the moment in which silence hovered over them. Daphne had already spoken to her in detail about what had transpired between her and Potter during their meeting the day before, explaining that he had given her a few but seemingly very important words which would help her family convince Dumbledore to join his resistance while he asked for some kind of dark book made by her ancestors in return. Daphne likely hadn't told Astoria about any of this, judging by her answer to explain it all to Astoria later on, the part of the book would likely be omitted however.

"What is it about their reply then? What are you discussing with them?" Astoria asked in confusion, a frown crossing her face.

"It's too much to explain now, and as I said; we need our parents reply first to continue on it."

"Fine, leave me hanging then." Astoria huffed, crossing her arms.

"Oh Don't worry, I will. I'll see you two later this evening, I have to go now." Daphne said in a unbothered tone before turning around and walking away.

Astoria's eyes briefly held her sister's retreating figure, casting a glance at the clock before speaking to her. "Another meeting with Potter again?"

"Yup." Tracey simply said, not needing to explain why; Astoria already knew that Potter couldn't dance and was practicing it with her sister to learn it in time.

"You think they will the dancing for the whole evening? Their meetings have increased in length lately, surely they're also doing something else." Astoria said skeptically, leaning backwards in her seat lazily.

"Well she has also started teaching him Occlumency, although she doesn't explain why; it's probably for some private reason, either that or a secret we aren't supposed to know…mabye both." Tracey explained.

Astoria's expression turned a bit dull at her answer. "Oh, and here I thought that they might be doing something dirty."

"Which is why I explained it." She said rolling her eyes at the younger sister.

"Hmm." Astoria hummed looking thoughtful. "…It's quite strange though, the idea of my sister with a male even if it's only as a friend, she never showed much interest prior to this year."

"You're pretty much the same in that regard, even if you're younger than her." Tracey pointed out.

"True, but standards have to be met you know." Astoria simply agreed with her, not offering many arguments against her.

"So what do you think about it?" Astoria asked turning toward her with a curious expression.

She kept quiet for a moment to contemplate her answer as she fiddled with the paper of her magazine before speaking. "Pretty much the same feelings as you; I am happy for her, she seems to be enjoying herself during our lessons and is very open to him."

"It's good to hear that she is genuinely comfortable with him at least. " Astoria replied idly tapping with her feet on the intricate green carpet beneath them as she was likely imagining the scene in her head.

Tracey felt a sly grin creep upon her face as she leaned closer to the younger Greengrass. "Oh she is more than just comfortable, you should see them during our lessons, they're like a married couple."

"Potter? With my sister?" She asked her eyebrows nearly disappearing into her hairline in disbelief.

"Oh yes, they try to do it a bit discreetly of course being in class and all, but I always find it highly amusing to watch them mess and bicker with each other." Tracey continued seeing her face morph into amusement as she imagined it.

"Really now, well I guess that I should start paying a little more attention then, I suspect more than simple friendly intentions behind her help to him if things are as you say them to be." Astoria said grinning.

Tracey nodded in agreement. "I'm glad that you share the same thoughts then, Daphne never explained it in detail to me but she set these things up so that she got more time to spend with Potter after getting to know him during our lessons."

"Set what up?" Astoria questioned curiously.

"Well nearly everything, you already know that she got him to go to the Slug Club, but the dancing lessons, being instructors and going to the masquerade together? Yeah, that's been done in the same fashion."

Astoria laughed. "Yeah that's my sister, if it were up to her, she would plan everything up till the day she died. Daphne is quite fixated on him then, if she is putting this amount of effort and time in it."

"That she is. You should see how she looks at Granger sometimes when he talks or sits to her. As if she would like nothing more than to throw a Dungbomb between them."

Astoria stopped wriggling with her feet and frowned. "But Potter and Granger weren't a thing right? They can appear quite close sometimes but the things said about them were just rumors; false ones in this case, right?"

Tracey nodded. "Yeah, pretty sure they aren't true, Weasley and Granger shoot enough glances at each other during our lessons for me to see that, unlike Potter who is keeping his attention mostly on the work in front of him and Daphne. But that isn't necessarily much to go by from, who knows what Granger herself thinks, or Potter for that matter."

"Daphne must be thinking along the same lines then and became quite wary of it, but I guess I'll see it soon enough with my own eyes though." Astoria said with the same grin.

"Yeah likely, the dance lessons are coming soon and the rumors are already floating around a bit, It'll be known soon enough, they-or at least Daphne will be more open after that." She replied.

Astoria was silent for a moment before wrapping her arms around her middle and started making some kind of squealing sound. "I've hardly seen her that bull headed about something, it's so adorable! I'm going to tease her to death when I can!"

Tracey laughed. "Oh I'll join you; when we can, but for now let's give her some quiet to further her master plan, besides there might be nothing more, maybe she just likes him as a friend."

Astoria gave her a skeptical look, angling her head and raising an eyebrow. "Really now? You can actually still say that when you heard and seen these things from her firsthand? No way this is just friendly interest, her hooks are big enough to catch the giant squid in the lake."

Tracey smiled and shrugged. "I think the same but I'm just saying, things might be different, even if it seems very unlikely."

"Good, might have started thinking you were some kind of imposter otherwise." Astoria said nodding, satisfied with her answer. "And do you have someone already to go with? Or anyone you fancy?"

"No, can't say I do, I'll probably grab some guy by the neck during the dancing lessons who should be fun and polite to be with at the party."

"I see, nothing life changing for you then." Astoria said jokingly.

Tracey nodded in agreement despite Astoria's light tone, life changing indeed, that was how things were going to change for everyone.

"Wish I could come to the party though, no doubt that it's going to be beautiful." She said sighing in longing.

Tracey opened her mouth but kept silent when she saw a familiar shade of platinum hair descend the stairs in the back of the common room.

Malfoy's eyes briefly darted around the common room, not making his presence known or making any effort to do so; rather trying to do the opposite as he went straight for the exit behind her and Astoria in a hurried but silent pace.

His hair was kept in the same model as it always was with some unruliness in it instead of the usual perfectly smooth and slick, which had become some kind of trademark for him. His face looked tired but his eyes were awake as they darted around in some kind of paranoia.

Malfoy had to pass them and she realized that she quickly needed to look away from him lest he notice her looking.

She turned back to Astoria to see her face with a questioning gaze again, wondering why she had been silent for some time.

Talk! Anything, something! Why don't these things come when you need them the most?!

"Why was the mother firefly unhappy with her children?" She blurted out, using the first thing that came to mind.

Astoria gaze became only more questioning at the random question and sighed. "I don't know, because they couldn't fly?"

"No try again." She said a bit forced, seeing Malfoy's form pass them out of the corner of her eye, unchanged in behavior and paying no heed to them.

"Because they did something bad?" Astoria asked clueless, throwing her arms up.

"No, because they weren't so bright." Tracey answered giving an awfully fake laugh, hearing him leave the common room some distance behind them.

"Tracey, are these jokes ever going to get any better or will you continue to torture us with them until the end of time?"

She dimly registered Astoria's response as she rose from her seated position. Now was the right opportunity, Draco hadn't paid any attention to her and was currently on his way again to wherever he always went. She could catch up to him if she went now to see where he would go and what he would be doing.

"I realized that I left something in the library, I'll be right back." She said doing some gesture for her feigned forgetfulness, already moving towards the exit which Draco had gone through.

"Oh? Well it isn't the first time, I'll see you in a bit then." Astoria said looking a bit surprised at her sudden realization.

"I'll be right back, but do something in the meantime, don't bore yourself." Tracey called out, not sure how long she would be gone before disappearing and moving up the stone stairs, looking up the spiral staircase to make sure she wasn't too close behind him.

Daphne might believe it all to be nonsense but Tracey knew that something was up, Malfoy was spending all his time and effort on _something,_ something he wanted to keep secret from the teachers, his classmates and friends. She had no idea as to what it might be, but she did know that it was something negative, Malfoy never did anything nice and spending his time so relentlessly on something couldn't be a nice surprise party.

She silently sped up the staircase, hoping that he was going back to his schemes instead of something mundane like the library as she moving past a few second years who had been on the descend fluidly taking the room they offered for her as they moved aside so she could slip past them. She continued onward and soon heard a steady pace on the stairs whom must belong to Malfoy since no one else had went up shortly before or after him, except for her.

Tracey kept enough distance between them to keep her out of sight in the spiraling staircase. She knew they would soon reach the dungeon corridor, the staircase to the common room wasn't very long.

The sound of his footsteps changed, letting her know that he had exited the stairs and was now in the corridor. She waited for a couple of seconds in the safety of the stairs before continuing upwards, peeking around the corner into the corridor when she came upon the exit he had left moments before.

She saw his retreating back at the end of the corridor, his head turning from side to side as he looked around as if expected that someone might jump him at any moment.

She kept her body hidden behind the stone wall as he turned left into a hallway that would lead him upstairs. She moved as soon as he was out of sight, padding silently to the next corner and peeking around again just in time to see his legs disappear into the staircase as he traveled up.

Tracey moved again intent to keep him within her range, repeating the same tactic on the stairs again by keeping her own steps silent while listening to his sluggish ones.

This continued for some time until she heard him exit again while she strained to keep her breathed silent as they had gone all the way up to the fourth floor, which was the maximum this staircase could bring them.

She waited again, both to catch up her breath and to create some safe distance between them as a long hallway was up ahead which would mean more risk to exposure in the long, open space.

Deciding that enough time had passed, she moved upward again, quickly coming upon the end of the stairs and casting another peek around the edge into the long corridor. She saw Malfoy just as he rounded the corner, turning his head left as he went, taking one last glimpse at the hallway behind him; a glimpse of her, she realized with a jolt as his eyes seemed to cross hers for a fraction of a second before he disappeared behind the stone wall.

Tracey stood frozen as her heart had instantly begun to hammer in her chest, had he seen her? She hadn't really seen him respond, maybe he hadn't seen her, he had been a long distance away and it had only been for a fraction of a second,

She gathered herself and took a quick stride through the corridor with that in thought, once again waiting behind the safety the wall offered her.

She heard something as she stood and quickly recognized it to be his footsteps which softly echoed throughout the corridor, they had become louder and more hurried meaning that he had picked up his pace. She too continued after him with a faster pace after she saw no signs of him in the next hallway, but was slowed by her intentions on keeping her own footsteps silent, not wanting to indirectly confirm to him that he was indeed being followed.

At the end of the hallway was an intersection, forcing Tracey to choose one of them since she hadn't seen which one he went into.

The left hallway would lead her to another staircase which went up to the seventh floor, while the right hallway would take her to the library. She went left after briefly using her reasoning, Malfoy had gone to the seventh floor the last time around and would probably have taken another route if his intention had been to go to the library.

She hurried down the corridor towards the staircase, passing house clothed walls and suits of armor as she went in an uncomfortable silence, devoid of talking and sleeping portraits.

Tracey dimly heard his leaping footsteps echo in the spiral staircase, and noted that he was probably near the end of the stairs already, causing her to quicken her pace, cringing as she heard her footsteps.

The sound of his footsteps trailed off after a few moments, informing her once again that he had exited the stairs. She sped up some more, taking multiple steps at once with each stride up the staircase, fearing that she might lose him again.

She took a few breaths to calm her breathing at the top of the staircase, and took a tentative glance into the corridor of the seventh floor. Nothing, not a sight nor sound. Something that both relieved and frustrated her, relieved that he hadn't been lying in ambush for her, and frustrated since she was beginning to believe that she had lost him. Again.

She stepped into the corridor that was also only decorated by empty suits of armor, with clothes and colours of every house hanging on the walls, making her realize that he had probably taken this route with the purpose of avoiding any and all portraits along the way.

She walked along the hallway, the only thing out of place being the completely blank stretch of wall. She looked closer but saw and felt no seams or buttons to wedge or push onto, proving to her that it was simply a spot devoid of decorations.

Tracey continued down the hallway and looked around for some time but was soon sure that she had lost him again, she hadn't seen or heard a sign from him after coming up the staircase herself. Making her reluctantly head to the library to pick up some imaginary book.

At the very least this proves to some degree that Malfoy either values his privacy to extreme measures or is doing something he shouldn't be. She'll convince Daphne slowly but surely that something isn't right

* * *

He shot inside and closed the door behind him, hoping that no traces of him and the door had been seen as he rested his head against the door to regain his breath, he had very nearly run the last part. After catching a glimpse of somebody behind him as he had turned into a corner, Draco had hoped to lose whoever it was that followed him earlier on the way but had evidently been unable to do so as his pursuer had tailed him most of the way here again.

He hadn't been entirely sure last time but now he had been convinced. Somebody was following him, was suspicious of him.

Maybe next time he should take detours until his pursuer either gave up or lost him, giving him the opportunity to safely enter the room. In fact he should have done that just minutes before, but his mind hadn't been all that calm and focused as he had been followed by the unknown figure back then, at the time he had hoped that the intersection would have been enough to throw off whoever was behind him. which proved to be a mistake on his part.

Who had been following him? Somebody was intent on finding out where he was going, and what he was doing.

It probably hadn't been Potter, he would have been faster and completely unseen with that cloak he had, no it was someone else, for he had seen shadows and a shifting silhouette on multiple occasions. This person had no means of such kind of concealment.

He had seen a glimpse of his pursuer when he had rounded the corner to the staircase. It had been hard to see in the low hanging sun, casting long shadows in the hallway coupled with the fraction of a second it lasted and the distance between them.

But he had distinguished a feminine figure with chestnut brown hair.

The only notable person who came to mind was Tracey Davis girl from his own house, he had seen her throw suspicious glances at him on multiple occasions after the first time he had been followed. She likely wasn't that fast and was in an easy position to see him leave as he had to cross the common room each time he left, just like tonight.

But what should he do? Wait and confront her? No that would confirm her suspicions, causing her to inform the teachers. Threaten her? No that would do the same and who knew what she might do after his threat, he didn't have the support of his family anymore to back it up; to make it seem real. It seemed that any confronting action he could take would end up with leading more attention to him.

Draco leveled his head already seeing the cabinet peek through all the shelves, items, chairs, mirrors and furniture that filled the large room in a chaotic fashion. There must be hundreds of not thousands of objects and books here in the vast oval room.

He had to continue on like this, no other way. Just keep losing her and anyone else on the way here. Hopefully she wouldn't talk too much, Greengrass would likely hear it from her, but beyond that they didn't talk much to other people and with a little bit of luck kept it to themselves. Otherwise he would be forced to do… something. He didn't know what yet, but he would need to have some kind of emergency measure ready by then.

Draco made his way through all the items and objects to the cabinet. He had to fix it… he must, the Dark Lord said he would kill his parents if he were to fail at killing Albus Dumbledore before the given deadline. Other methods didn't work, the necklace was discovered and the poison he recently send never arrived. This was probably the only plan which had any chance of success.

It was punishment for the failure of his father at the ministry, none were allowed to help him and Snape was untrustworthy due to his insistent attempts of helping him. He either genuinely wanted to help him or take all the glory for himself when Draco managed to succeed at repairing the cabinet.

But he couldn't even if Snape were genuine, his parents would pay the price if the Dark Lord were to find out, which he surely would. Draco might have learned Occlumency through the tormenting lessons of his aunt; Bellatrix, but they would surely prove insufficient against the mind piercing eyes of the Dark Lord.

He thought back to the summer vacation at their mansion and nearly shivered thinking about those blood red eyes again, how they looked down on him in amusement when he informed him of his mission to kill Dumbledore, his mission to kill one of the most powerful wizards alive or let his parents face the consequences. In the background his mother wept uncontrollably but silently, as if a death sentence had been spoken over him. Draco consoled and reassured her afterwards, but the words tasted like lies from start to finish.

He only wanted to serve the Dark Lord, he never thought it to be like this, why were they being punished so brutally? Draco tried to still his hand from trembling, he still had time, it was going to be all right. He was going to fulfill his mission at killing Dumbledore and redeem his family's honor, they would have their old lives back after that.

Everything used to be so simple..

* * *

**..Hello**

**Yes yes still alive! Sorry for the delay, don't really have any legit excuse like; I broke my toe so now I can't type with my feet anymore! But I'm here to tell that this story won't be abandoned (if anyone feared for it lol). It might see empty periods like just now but it will be finished.**

**You shouldn't write when you don't feel like it! However that's just my opinion, for I would probably write lower quality story if I were to do so.**

**Future updates will probably take longer than a week from now on. It all depends.**

**Harry, Daphne again next chapter!**

**Mighty Pen 20/Maedre/Gunreal: thanks for the feedback, you're right and I'm planning on improving the earlier chapters on the points you mentioned but can't say when, probably when this whole story is finished which could prove to be quite some time.**


	15. Thinking and Feeling

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter Universe and all the characters belong to J.K. Rowling.

* * *

This time for sure! Harry thought as he closed the door of their usual classroom behind him with a smirk as he saw that Daphne hadn't arrived yet. This time the gentlemen would be first to arrive and give the lady a little scare as a small payback for all the scheming he had been dragged into without his consent and knowing.

He had come extra-extra early this time to make sure he would arrive first and was currently underneath his invisibility cloak waiting in ambush for when she would come inside, unaware of his presence and intentions.

Nothing works better than an invisibility cloak for giving a jumpscare! He thought triumphantly, feeling that his smirk had morphed into a shit eating grin by now.

A few minutes went by as Harry waited, making him realize that he had probably come too early..

He moved from the door and seated himself in one of the chairs which stood at the sides of the room. Successfully making himself comfortable while still remaining invisible for his task.

He sighed as he waited, glad that he didn't feel the need to fall asleep right there and then again. The extra sleep he had gotten from their earlier meeting coupled with a nights rest that went reasonably well gave him the energy he needed to stay focused and upright. However he wasn't going to tell Daphne that, he would never hear the end otherwise, he could already envision her satisfied posture if he were to admit.

He looked up when he heard the door move to let Daphne slip inside. Using the moment the door clicked shut to rise out of his chair, covering the soft creak it gave when he lifting his weight off of it with the sound of the door falling shut.

He took a few paces toward her but waited as he saw her turn and head to the desks and chairs lined up at the walls.

Daphne probably wants to grab a chair again to sit on like she usually does when she waits. Which coincidentally would probably prove to be the best moment for him to come out of hiding, Harry thought as she reached the lined up chairs.

Instead of grabbing a chair and taking it with her, she took out her wand and tapped one of them much to his puzzlement, making him wait in silence as he silently watched her next move.

The chair she had tapped rapidly transformed into a thin and nearly full length mirror, making efficient use of the resources she had available to complete the mirror in front of her.

Again he waited in curiosity. Why did she feel the need to transfigure a mirror right now? She always looked good and there isn't much to ruffle your feathers along the way here.

Daphne, however seemed to think otherwise as she critically began to examine her face and hair in the mirror. Turning her head from side to side before smoothing, prodding and rearranging her hair, bringing in the smallest detail and changes he wouldn't have noticed were it not for the opportunity of nearly watching over her shoulder as she did so.

She stepped back, apparently satisfied with her face and hair and removed her school robes, tossing it on one of the nearby chairs, and took a step back to allow more of her body to appear in the mirror.

She neatly rolled up the sleeves of her school uniform, smoothed her skirt and began to twist her body from side to side to inspect everything from top to bottom, as if she were expecting to find some giant dirt stain somewhere on her clothes, while grumbling about unattractive school uniforms.

He began to feel a bit awkward. Just standing there watching her go about her business and was relieved when she stopped examining her curvy body as she looked back at her reflection with a serious expression and huffed. "Nothing to worry about Daphne, you're strong, confident and beautiful, you've seen him look, he might even get a bit jealous if you tell him about the arrogant slug and word it in the right way."

Yeah it definitely felt like he was spying on her.. being the true gentlemen he was he started to move towards the door to make his silent and unknown escape while keeping his eyes on her, unable to tear them away in curiosity to her words and actions.

A whole bunch of thoughts raced through his mind at her words. What was she talking about? Why would he get jealous? Was she even talking about him in the first place? Who was the slug? Professor Slughorn? His thoughts came to a crash however at her next move.

Daphne's eyes dropped down a bit and she cupped her breasts in a measuring way. He could only gape and stare openly as she lightly gripped them through her sweater while he kept moving backwards. "Granger's breasts aren't even that much bigger, he probably doesn't even care about that at all."

He heard a wooden thud and realized to his horror that his back had collided with the wooden frame of the door behind him, having completely forgotten that he had continued to move backwards as he watched her.

Daphne whirled around with her wand out, looking like a deer in headlights as her eyes darted around the room in alarm to the sound in the otherwise silent classroom. He didn't dare move, trying to leave now was no option; doors didn't move by themselves.

He noticed how a deep blush was rapidly spreading across her face and swallowed heavily as a prolonged silence hung in the room before recognition dawned upon her face.

"Accio Invisibility Cloak!"

Harry cursed in his mind as the cloak flew from his body in a sudden rush to obey her summoning spell, he managed to keep a hold of it with his reflexes but knew it to be futile as only half the cloak now covered his body.

Her face seemed to have permanently adopted the new shade of red as it didn't fade in the least while her wand; in her pressured grip was giving off an ominous purple glow at the tip.

She didn't look very happy; rather seemed ready for murder as the look in her eyes told him that he shouldn't have been here. He tried to disarm the volatile situation in the best way possible by giving a lame wave with his visible arm.

"Hey."

"You asshole!" She screeched as she began firing off spells at him.

He quickly sidestepped her spell, letting it impact against the door he had walked into and threw off the remainder of the cloak, knowing he didn't have the time cover himself again without the risk of getting tangled up in it.

"Who taught you any manners, spying on people like that!?" She shouted while continuing with her spells, intend on catching him.

Harry bit back the remark that she had practically done the same to him but opted to go for something less infuriating. "I can explain Daphne just give me a—chance to talk!" He said briefly interrupting himself to dodge another spell, hearing one of the chairs behind him break.

"You can talk after I'm done with you!" She said angrily, beginning to mess up the details in her hair she had worked on moments before.

He swiftly took out his own wand, ignoring the uneager tug it gave at being used again as he swatted one of her hexes away and send a stunner in return. "I didn't mean to! I thought you were just going to sit down!"

"And then what? Just watch me sit there waiting?" Daphne called back, making a close call with his stunner is her lapse of concentration.

"Stand still already! Cantis! Colloshoo!" She called out after recovering.

He knew better than to talk first and grabbed a chair behind him, and promptly threw it forward in the air against her two spells, ridding himself of them. "No! Just a little scare as a joke."

"Yeah, right!" came the sarcastic reply.

Seeing that this was going nowhere he made use of the position he managed to steer her in. "Accio chair, Incarcerous!"

Daphne made a startled sound as the chair behind her zoomed forward, buckling her knees, causing her to drop down on it before being bound to it with his ropes shooting around her and the chair, effectively immobilizing her. It didn't seem to stop her determination however, as she wiggled in her bound position with her wand still in her hand.

"Expelliarmus." He said disarming her and catching her wand in the small distance that was now between them, better safe than sorry.

He knelt down before her so they were on eye level. "Care to let me finish or do you simply like being bound in ropes?" He said reminding her about their last little bout.

She was breathing hard from the whole ordeal and blew a lose strand from her red tinged face in defeat. "I always knew that you simply like seeing me in them."

He sighed. "Good so see that you calmed down a bit."

"Calm before the storm, Harry, just wait until I'm loose." She grumbled.

"Well, I'll brave the storm if you still decide to do so after hearing me out."

Daphne rolled her eyes. "I don't have much else to do anyway, go ahead. I'm quite comfortable here, really. You were quite early today, please do tell me why?"

"Don't mind if I do then.. I uh." He began not really knowing how to explain it all in a logical and convincing way. "I really just wanted to give you a scare, you know for the recent tasks you dropped onto me? Thought it would be funny."

Daphne raised an eyebrow. "Yeah? And?"

Despite having outwitted and bound her Harry felt like one who had lost with the way this was already turning around. "Nothing else. That was all there was to it.."

"And you didn't manage to do so because?"

"Well I don't know, at first I wanted to wait for the right moment but then you started doing your things, and I got sort of.. distracted." He said trailing off vaguely.

"Right, so of all the things you could do, you planned to use your amazing cloak to give me a simple scare?"

He winced. "It sounds kind of lame if you put it like that.."

Daphne stared at him for a moment.

"I felt my opinion of you drop a little just now." She cruelly deadpanned.

Harry shot up indignantly and pointed down at her. "Oh come off it already! You can't put all the blame on me! How could I know you would start talking to yourself while groping your breasts!" He blurted out.

Daphne had to close her mouth which had fallen open after his exclamation before bursting out herself again. "Fine! Let's just forget about it then and start doing what we came for!"

"We will!" He shot back at the young witch who was rocking herself aggressively in the chair before releasing her bonds, and throwing their wands to the side of the room with a clatter.

She bolted from her chair and gripped the hand he had offered while he roughly grabbed her lower back as her arm flung itself around his shoulder and neck with the music instruments in the back coming to life.

They tugged in different directions as both of them had something else in mind.

"Foxtrot." He grumbled in annoyance.

"Waltz." She replied in the same tone.

"Okay! Waltz then." He said knowing they wouldn't get anywhere otherwise.

They each began tugging in different directions again.

"I'll lead!" He said glaring.

Her grip tightened even more as she returned the look. "No you're not, I am!"

"You're impossible, woman! Give me some ground!" He cried out.

"Fine! you lead and we do the Waltz."

They finally managed to start dancing, or at least some resemblance to it as they stomped around, throwing their weights into each other. The strong grip on each other being the only strong that held them together. The music being just as wild and harsh in the background as they moved about.

It was an exhausting dance that only continued for a few minutes before it started slowing down and eventually returned to their usual, well practiced pace.

Daphne's grip had relaxed some time ago and her head was resting against his chest as they slowed down some more to catch their breaths from the exertion. Her face had also lost much of its red colour by now.

Harry felt her trembling against him with a few snorts coming out now and then, making himself start doing the same as he still tried to withhold it.

She soon let out a full blown laughter, the same as he had heard during one of their earlier meetings. This time however he could join her in the same volume as the entire situation became ridiculously funny all of a sudden.

They had to stop and support each other as they moved toward the wall and seated themselves on the edge of the window to let it slowly die out and regain their breath.

Daphne let out a long breath with some leftover giggles coming through. "Okay, what happened after the 'hey' part again? My memory couldn't be right in the way I seem to remember it."

"I guess pandemonium broke out." He letting a few calming breaths himself to settle his light stomach and breathing.

Smiling, she ran her hand through her hair, combing it a bit. "I say the mood shifted quite erratically."

He snorted at the choice of words. "Meaning; it went up and down like a wild rollercoaster."

"A wild rolling what?" She asked while giving him an amused look.

He quickly realized that she likely didn't know about the speedy machines and explained. "A muggle thing. It's an amusement ride, consisting of a cart following a track at high speed, at least most of the time."

The explanations seemed to puzzle her. "Tracey might have talked about it somewhere in the past. It sounds a lot like the railway in Gringotts, but why would muggles like something like that? It's awful.."

"It kind of is like the ride in Gringotts, however this variant is a lot more pleasant… I think." He said tentatively, not actually having been in a rollercoaster or anything remotely coming close to it in his entire life.

"Silly muggle inventions." Daphne said shaking her head at the oddity before turning to him with a frown. "But never mind that, how did you do that?"

Harry gave her a questioning look. "Do what?"

"Beat me!" Daphne exclaimed as if he had just managed to win an arm wrestling match against a troll.

"Sorry but It wasn't that hard. Your attention was a tunnel vision on me, there was no tactic in your spellwork and you didn't make use of or keep track of your surroundings. They're important in duels; could even end your life if you aren't careful." He said briefly seeing a flash of Sirius sailing through the veil at the end of his explanation.

She slumped a bit with each point and could only weakly mumble her reply. "It wasn't _that_ bad.."

"It would probably have gone better for you if had kept those tips in mind and kept your cool, I'm not that good or special." He said putting his hand on top of hers in a comforting gesture without thinking.

She looked up at him in surprise, likely because of his action rather than his words. He himself was also just beginning to see that he hadn't done anything like it before in this kind of sense. He didn't pull his hand away however, and simply held her warm hand.

"Could have fooled me. Maybe you can teach me a thing or two sometime." She said in a much more cheery tone.

He nodded. "Sure, but first things first, we have enough as it is."

"I wonder how that came to be." Daphne said acting oblivious, holding a finger to her chin.

"Yeah, of course you wouldn't know why." Harry said with a snort.

Daphne only grinned slyly in response.

Silence fell and he began studying the scenery outside the cold window as conversation ended and their connected hands remained where they were.

He could see that a light frost covered most of the grass, buildings and trees with the sun streaking its last red colours across the sky before it would eventually succumb to the approaching night.

Deciding that he would end the awkward but pleasant silence, he gave the back of her hand one last squeeze before sliding of the edge onto the floor again. "Come on let's get started for real this time."

Daphne nodded and fluidly slid down from the window.

"Ready to begin on the Quickstep?" She asked in a tone that was unusually quiet.

"Let's fix the room first before we go at it again." He said indicating the mess around them with a low sweep of his arm.

He saw Daphne's gaze sweep across the classroom, taking in the damage such as the multiple chairs that had been broken, the burn mark on the door and various smudges on the floor and walls.

"I know that you panicked, Harry, but you didn't have the wreck in room in response." She said faking an understanding tone, quickly returning to herself.

He gave her a wry look, not giving her the satisfaction of a verbal reaction and began repairing a few damaged chairs.

"So Quickstep is on the roster tonight. What's it like again?" Harry asked vanishing a multi coloured stain of the wall, idly wondering whether or not he would have turned into a walking rainbow if it had hit him.

"It's a combination of Slow Foxtrot combined with the Charleston. One of those two you already know, so you should get the hang of it quick enough with some of the old style shining through this new one." Daphne answered from the other side of the room, vanishing and repairing the damage in the same manner he did.

He nodded seeing that she had finished on her side, logical since a lot more spells had been fired off toward his side of the room.

Finished the last spots on the floor, he silently met her in the middle of the room fluidly taking a dancing position with her again, while she started guiding him through each of the steps.

They started making progress relatively quick sometime later when Daphne spoke out as they continued their pace.

"You're feeling better, right? Did yesterday help?"

He bend her low so he saved himself from her inspecting gaze a moment longer, while grumbling his admittance.

She had an I-told-you-so look when he pulled her back up. "Daphne knows best, Harry. You should listen more."

"Says the women who instantly goes berserk-ouch!" He called out as she purposefully stepped on his foot with a look of feign concern on her face, as if she was wondering why he had called out.

"Yes of course, I'll think twice about it next time." He raid rolling his eyes.

She seemed pleased with his answer before a coy smile took her lips. "So, did you like it?"

"No, I like you more without your wand pointing at me." He said grimacing.

"Not that, yesterday." She said giving him a look.

"Oh." He said realizing that she was talking about the nap he had taken during their meeting, remembering how he had eventually woken up with his head on her lap, with no recollection on how he had ended up there.

Daphne tightened her grip on him in response to his silence, bringer him closer to her and her breasts, which he had been a lot more conscious of since the moment they started, feeling them lightly press against his chest.

"Did you like sleeping with me?" She repeated softly.

He felt his face heat mostly at the feeling of her and almost sputtered his reply out. Thankfully he managed to keep it under control. "Don't word it like that, Hogwarts would explode if they heard something along those lines."

"It can be interpreted in multiple ways, not my fault you can't control yourself." She said with a bit of that devilish grin she usually had shining through her innocent expression.

She lessened her grip, allowing the usual distance between them again. To the relief of his pounding heart and blood, the scent of her flowers seemed to have bloomed in that moment with an intoxicating dosage.

Her expression turned more searching afterwards. "So you didn't hate it? I didn't make you too uncomfortable? You are quite hard to read sometimes, you know."

Harry willed himself to look into her sapphire eyes that were set in an expression of open sincerity. "I didn't hate it, I would have protested a lot longer otherwise."

"And here I thought you liked making me feel uncomfortable?" He continued lightly in response to her questions and actions.

"I do but there are different kinds, I like the one where you get all red the most." Daphne admitted showing her devilish grin openly.

"Yeah, those were my suspicions. Thanks for the confirmation." He blandly replied.

"Anytime, Harry."

"It was..calming." He admitted after some moments of silence, remembering the warm dreamless sleep.

She looked relieved and rested her head against him making him unable to see more of the expression. "That's good, feel free to come for more anytime you want or need it."

He nodded against the side of her hair. Once again confused by the twists and turns she made but feeling warm inside nonetheless, causing him to dismiss the thoughts of trying to figure it out and simply opted to enjoy it and let it be.

Their tempo had already slowed down considerably throughout their conversation and he disengaged from her, gesturing toward the window they usually sat on during their breaks.

"Let's sit down for a moment and rest?"

She nodded. "Yeah, no wait, on second thought; transfigure the desk again so that we can start with Occlumency when you're ready."

"We're not continuing with the Quickstep?" He asked lightly surprised, they usually spend more time practicing.

"What? Disappointed that you can't hold me anymore?" she asked in fake curiosity, and he actually felt inclined to agree with her, but quickly replaced it with the urge to start with his Occlumency.

"Couldn't live without it." He replied calmly transfiguring the desk before plopping down on the cushioned couch.

"Of course you can't, feel thankful for having my precious free time." Daphne said haughtily as she gracefully seated herself beside him with the usual close proximity between them, which he didn't move away from, having the eccentric blonde at a normal distance would probably feel weird by now.

"But I need to tell you something else first." She said rearranging her skirt beneath her.

"Sure, what is it, Daphne?" Harry said attentively.

Daphne's eyes flicked to his. "It's about that arrogant slug."

"Oh, yeah, you mentioned it before, who is it?." He thinking back to the things she had said in the beginning of the evening.

Daphne sighed. "It's Theodore Nott, he is quite the pompous dork these days. Even had to nerve to nearly threaten me and Astoria."

He sat up a little straighter and felt his eyebrows furrow. "What did he say? Is it because of the rumors that are starting to swell?"

"Well he didn't actually word it specifically in any direct way, but managed to convey it nonetheless." She said frowning at the lack of evidence she could provide. "And yes; he came to me because he caught wind of it."

"Just come tell me again if he does anything to you or anyone else like Davis and your sister." Harry said relaxing a bit at her answer, but still feeling a bit wary regardless. Not liking the thought of being unable to know whether or not she would be in trouble.

"My knight in shining armor; Harry Potter, coming to my defense while riding on the back of a dragon?" Daphne asked smiling.

"Make out of it whatever you want, just come see me if he does it again." He said waving her off.

"And what will you do then? Stomp him?" She asked seemingly thinking lightly of Nott's threats.

He couldn't smile or grin back at her and held her gaze in a serious expression, watching hers fall a bit as he replied. "I'll right the wrong."

She seemed to shrink back a bit in the intensity of his look before she recovered and replied. "Well you'll have your chance to talk to Nott as he will probably come see you after he realizes that you are my date for the party."

"He'll come whine to me just because we are going to the masquerade together? Don't people have better things to do?" He grumbled in annoyance under his breath.

"No, the most likely case being that he comes to talk you out of it."

Harry frowned. "What good does that serve him?"

"He wants to act all high and mighty by taking me; the Slytherin doing the wrong thing to the party, just to show people that he _can_, and probably try to feel me up while he's at it too. He actually came up to me, saying that _I_ was allowed to take _him_ to the party."

"I'm guessing that you didn't like the way he did it?" He asked frowning a bit after her answer.

Daphne scoffed. "No, I didn't. That pretentious fool."

This time he did manage to grin a bit at her words, glad that the Nott scion had little chance of coming to the party with them making the calls. Still he made a note to himself to watch Theodore for his father was one of the Death Eaters who came at the graveyard after Voldemort's resurrection, and participated in the battle at the Ministry. He was (for now) an imprisoned Death Eater, however Harry didn't believe Azkaban to be immune for a second mass breakout.

"Well?" He heard a voice call out impatiently.

"What?" He asked looking up in response to her lacking question.

"Well some other guy asks me out, how do you fell about that? Nothing at all?" She asked crossing her arms.

Harry blinked before the gears started working in his head. So this was what she meant earlier? What he should be jealous about? How was that even possible? He wanted to tell her so with a joke, but noticed himself withholding the words. Realizing that he found the thought of some pompous guy getting overly chummy or even touchy with Daphne not a pleasant one, no matter who it was. Not in the least. Actually made him feel like something had been stolen from him in some strange sort of sense.

He knew that he was silently looking back at her, but the thoughts continued regardless. Why would I feel that way? With whom she talks to or interacts with isn't my business. His feelings however remained steadfast despite his sound reasoning. Finding the thought of her disliking the other guy pleasing him, making him go on in circles between the two sides in his mind.

"I don't really..like it." He said slowly, hoping that honesty would be the best thing to say in the end.

"Really? How so?" She asked looking at him with attention, as she uncrossed her arms.

His eyebrows knitted together as he tried to put words to it. "I don't know, kind of feels like I'm being robbed or something, as if it's my right."

"..Well yes, of course you feel that way. Only logical right? Yes, yes." Daphne replied mumbling, smiling uncontrollably as she started playing with one of her hair locks, while fumbling with the hem of her skirt in her other hand.

He only stared in confusion at the kind of reaction he hadn't seen or heard from her up until this point.

They remained like this in silence and he quickly noticed that; again, it wasn't a comfortable one like they would usually share, making him desperate to say something.

"So uh, Occlumency?"

"Ah, yes!" She said snapping out of it and turning to him with renewed energy. "Let's jump right into it. I already covered the basics with you, so I'll start invading your mind now, it's up to you to push me out."

"Any tips that could help?" He asked hoping that with unlike Snape, he could get a useful answer.

"Yes, try and focus on my presence, at first you likely don't really know what to do in order to find or push me out, but it'll come to sooner or later. It's like trying to move a muscle you have never used before; it's there but you simply don't know how to flex it yet. Doing this, along with some exercises on your own will help recognize it." She explained lifting her arm up and down in emphasis to her example.

"Thanks, that'll help." He responded, glad for more clarification on the experience.

"Remember that an empty and calm mind will help accomplishing these things. If not purely for the fact that they will distract you otherwise."

"Ready, Harry?" She asked in confirmation from him, lifting her wand.

He nodded. "Ready."

"On the count of three. One-two-three, Legilimence!"

His vision darkened and blurred making everything he saw a hazy background as he felt a pressuring presence somewhere in his head. It didn't press further nor did it move away from the initial spot he located it. Just sitting there completely stationary in his head like some strange misplaced headache.

He tried to will his mind to do something about it; to remove it or thrust it out from within his mind, but little happened and he soon felt help and limbless, unable to do anything against it.

The pressure vanished and he saw his vision come to the foreground again, sharp with the details his glasses provided for him. He saw a smiling Daphne holding her wand up, likely having retreating from his mind herself.

"Good job, Harry! You instantly managed to locate my presence, which is harder considering that mine is not very painful and prominent, making it harder to notice amongst the rest of your mind." She said in appraisal.

He rubbed his forehead with the back of his hand, while nowhere near the pain from Snape's lessons, it still felt unpleasant. "Was that good? I didn't manage to do anything after that."

"Locating is also a part of the muscle, to move and look around freely is part of the process, the first step actually."

"Oh, that should make for a good start then." He said, idly thinking that it might be because of the mindscape with the entity, which required him to move around in a directionless place.

"It does, Ready?" She asked readying her wand again.

"Yeah."

"One-two-three, Legilimence!" She called out firing off the invisible mind attack.

His vision blurred again and he wasted no time, searching and feeling throughout his mind for the pressure that bothered him quickly locating it in a different spot of his mind.

Harry tried to command the invisible forces of his mind to come to his defense against the intruder and concentrated on forcing the irregularity out.

He faintly felt some moving and twisting sensation in his head, as if his brains themselves were moving in response to his urging.

It wasn't enough however, since the presence didn't budge and remained steadfast in its position. He kept trying until he found that the headaches the efforts and presence delivered became too much to focus with. Causing the outside habitation to abruptly disappear again as Daphne withdrew.

He let out a breath as the world seemed to return to him while the headache ebbed. "How was that? I managed to set something in motion, right?"

"Yes, I felt you trying to push me out, I think you're simply a quick learner." She said encouragingly. "However you need more practice to put any considerable force in it, not to mention the speed in which you manage to do it, which is crucial to master."

"Getting some considerable shields shouldn't be too far away then?" He asked hopefully.

Daphne nodded in confirmation. "It should go pretty fast at this pace, strengthening them is something we can always work on later, if we even decide it necessary at all."

Harry rubbed his jaw feeling a bit of stubble, the shields themselves weren't too important at the moment, Somniamency had the obvious priority since he had to work most of it out himself if he wanted any hope of controlling his dreams.

"Good, let's continue." He said feeling that the headache had receded enough.

"One-two-three, Legilimence!"

They continued like this for the remainder of the evening and in the end Harry felt mentally exhausted but satisfied with the progress he had been able to make with Daphne's help.

"Take this with you before you leave." She said searching through her bag, pushing items and books aside in search for her target as they stood in the dimly lit and deserted corridor. Having left the classroom.

She pulled out a medium sized book and held it out to him. "I forgot to give it to you last time, it's the book about the mind arts so you can read up on multiple Occlumency exercises meanwhile, try them out and ask me if you have any trouble or questions."

"Oh yeah, now that you mention it." He said taking the book from her hands. "Are there also exercises for Somniamency?"

"No clue, I don't know much about the branch you are going for, the chapters are quite long so I haven't managed to do much reading on it."

"Don't worry about that, it's up to me to learn and master it. Besides I can still ask for some guidance from you, right? You helped me out a lot tonight, your explanations, as usual, are easy to grasp and understand. Thank you for that." Harry said grateful for her help.

She grinned and bloated at his words as she brushed back some of her hair behind her shoulder. "You're welcome, and of course you can ask, only natural that I can help you out, me being as perfect as I am."

He rolled his eyes. "Thank you, deity from the heavens above.."

"Worship and thou shall receive." Daphne replied smiling playfully as she began moving backwards. "See you tomorrow, Harry! Don't forget!"

He reached out with his hand in a halting gesture. "Uhm..forget what again?"

"Slug Club, Silly, in the evening again!" She called out flashing him that devilish grin again before disappearing behind the sharp corner.

Harry groaned as he remembered how much chaotic revelations it had held the last time and hoped she went easy on him this time.

He glanced at the cover reading; 'The mind, going deeper than your average trunk' before carefully stashing her book between the others he still had in his bag.

He sighed at the prospect of going to sleep again and hoped that he, like Daphne had said; was a fast learner. "Looks like I have a new book to read before going to sleep.."

* * *

**She will freely destroy your privacy but don't you dare do the same!**

**KnowPein: Harry _is_ actually, they promised secrecy (chapt 10) regarding the subject of his training so its fine between them. Astoria simply isn't in on it thus Daphne keeps her promise by omitting those parts.**

**Guest April 28: Wasn't the most interesting one for me either x) hope you found more enjoyment in this one.**

**riogetsuki: I'll torture you some more then hehe.**

**UltimateTouken: I'm really beginning to think you're sadistic.. I like it.**

**trispectrum: No answers yet for any of your points, although eventually they'll come.**

**Next time: Well.. Slug Club, but also Slughorn himself making another move! #Slughorn x)**

**Hope you all enjoyed and see you next time!**

**The Invisibility Cloak normally can't be summoned, changed that so it has a little weakness**


	16. Jet Black and Carmine Red

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter Universe and all the characters belong to J.K. Rowling.

* * *

Harry sat at the smoothly polished round table again and pushed his now empty plate away, thinking how the way toward the Club had been filled with little whispers and stares as he passed groups of students.

He heard only a few words but he heard enough to get the general gist of it. Potter and Greengrass, that was all he had managed to make out of their hushed whispers as he stepped past them on his way to the extensively detailed door of the Club with Hermione.

Hearing those two words in the same sentence spoke volumes for him. It had also happened the day after Daphne came to him with the news of Nott approaching and bothering her. Nott had probably been the cause that it had spread so suddenly in spite at them.

Not that it mattered all that much anyway, it was much too late already to be really bothersome, soon they would be standing in front of the other student to teach them the dances, proving to them on their own terms; that they're willingly organizing this.

Slughorn clapped in his hands once for attention. "Alright then! Now that everyone has eaten their fill of tonight's dishes, we can start discussing the progress of the party!"

Harry turned to Daphne having no clue as to what the current state of said progress actually was, causing some guilt to strike him at having been of little help to her, much like he had been useless to Hermione with the invitations around Gryffindor, but reasoned that soon he could start doing his own part with the supplementary lessons approaching them.

Daphne straightened a bit in her seat as all attention turned to her, having been the leading figurehead from the start. "I'm happy to inform you that everyone has returned with their share of the invitation list to me. Most of the people who were invited have agreed to come, their accompanying dates too of course will have to be listed when they are known to make sure that none of them are on your 'black list.'"

Harry briefly pondered what kind of people were on the 'black list' of Slughorn and soon reasoned that it would be students with Death Eaters in their families.

Like Dumbledore had said to him when he first met Slughorn in his house; 'Horace likes his comfort'.

Slughorn wanted to be successful and wealthy but without any kind of danger attached to it, which Harry found a bit hypocritical since Slughorn openly wanted to associate himself with him. He either didn't realize this or thought it outweighed the cons.

"Wonderful! Absolutely wonderful how things are moving along! Everyone has been invited as per schedule and a total of six instructors have already been appointed last time being; Hestia, Flora, Blaise, Cormac, Harry and yourself." Slughorn said satisfied with the current state.

"But I expected no less for I have already reserved the east wing on the sixth floor for the coming month; to give all of you a suitable location to accompany the students you will be teaching. I suggest making a schedule so that those coming know of the time, date and location."

"We will, Horace, and thank you for saving us the trouble of having to find something ourselves." Daphne said inclining her head respectfully.

He smiled merrily. "Think nothing of it. The hall is without use anyway."

"Now, are there any issues or things worth noting?" He asked looking around the table to each of them. Nodding to himself when none of them had anything to note.

"Good, then please continue making plans while Harry and I go for a little chat." Slughorn said standing up giving him a little clap on the shoulder when he passed.

He shrugged at the questioning looks he got from everyone around the table, indicating that he didn't know what this was about and moved to follow the potions Professor as the group started conversing about the best possible schedule setup.

They moved some distance away from the rest to stand in the dim light one of the large windows covering the walls gave.

"Is something wrong?" Harry asked a bit suspicious for his reasons, wondering why Slughorn pulled him aside from the group.

"Oh no, nothing to worry about m'boy, you are in no kind of trouble whatsoever!" Slughorn said chuckling lightly, mistaking his look for worry. "I merely wanted to ask how things are going along for you, Harry. You see your partner; Daphne came to me two weeks ago to ask for a room, saying that your dancing moves were a bit rusty, and that you needed some practice with her to get back into shape."

Harry glanced to Daphne at the table seeing her in a light argument with Hermione, likely about everyone's rosters. "Uh, yeah 'rusty', I definitely need a bit of practice to get back into it." He said a bit sarcastically at how downplayed the issue probably had been presented to Slughorn.

Slughorn took no notice of the sarcasm and nodded in agreement. "Exactly! I also gave Daphne the magical instruments to help in that regard. Besides; dancing without music is quite dull, right?"

"It is and helped me a lot during the practice, I should be able to perform and instruct the dances without problem now." He said nodding truthfully this time.

"That's good to hear, for I wanted to ask whether or not you've had sufficient time to rekindle your experience with them before the supplementary lessons started, but it seems that there is no problem there." Slughorn said jovially, idly twirling his moustache with his index finger.

"But quite the magical set isn't it? I got it during one of my visits to the minister of France, met this eccentric chap during one of the conferences there. The man collected a wide variety of creatures and trinkets from all around the magical world. Managed to trade my embalmed Grindylow for the whole set. Quite the deal if I do say no myself." Slughorn continued proudly as he stared of into memories of the past.

"It is." Harry said tentatively, thinking back on his encounter with the aggravating creatures at the Triwizard Tournament, wondering why anyone would ever want to have an embalmed Grindylow on one of their shelves.

"But let's leave that for another time, I'm getting completely off track again." Slughorn said waving his hands at the invisible memories that distracted him.

Slughorn let out a short sigh; one of longing and bliss as he pulled him into an one armed hug. "You see Harry, I've noticed something beautiful quite some time ago and will do my best to help the both of you cultivate it."

"Something… beautiful? Sir, what are you talking about?" He asked in utter confusion. He wasn't unhappy at the change of subject but was clueless on his introduction of whatever it was they just started talking about.

"It's Slughorn or Horace, Harry, and no need to be shy! This is beautiful like a Veela in its appearance, alluring in its appeal like a Mermaid in the water, and delicate like the Twilight flower which only grows in the darkest of woods! A once in a lifetime opportunity, a change on the course of fate itself."

"Slughorn, I don't-" He tried to interject.

"-It's a perfect match, a girl like her with a person like you. Even an two eyed Cyclops could see what's going on, I knew so for a long time." Slughorn continued passionately, making Harry feel more stupid than the Cyclops he was talking about for not seeing the apparent obvious.

"But that's no reason to take it easy, this is something gradual and mutual which needs to be cultivated tactfully." Slughorn said in an encouraging tone and fatherly squeeze. "But do not worry, Harry! I'm here to help."

Harry seriously began to doubt whether or not Slughorn had traded some of his marbles along with the Grindylow and opted to keep quiet in response.

Slughorn released him from the arm lock and grasped each of his shoulders instead for a face to face position at an arm's length. "From what I have understood, you and Daphne are going together to the party because it only seemed logical to do so, right?"

"Uhm yes, it only seemed natural since we agreed to practice, organize and instruct together." Harry said slowly before something clicked. "Wait, have you been talking about Daphne and me the whole time? Is that what you meant?"

Slughorn laughed loudly clapping him a few times on his shoulders, rocking his body with each hit and turning more than a few heads from the table in the back at the sound. "Yes of course, Harry! good one, good one!"

Harry was only spared a brief moment to collect his racing thoughts as the potions Professor calmed down from his laughter.

Harry glanced to her at the table. Something between him and Daphne? Surely he didn't mean.. Daphne simply liked to joke and laugh with him. She did it because it was amusing to her, because that was just how she was around him. that's all, she couldn't possibly like him in a romantic way… Someone like her? She who was born and raised in another world? The princess in the tower, and a unique flower between the masses of flawed imitations?

No, couldn't be the case.. He was raised in an unloving home, would be the plant that vainly tried to climb her tower on its walls, and could only shine his moonlight on her petals from a distance in hopes of affecting her growth. How would he live up to it all and fit in at the same time? He couldn't even begin to imagine what her home looked like.

He was happy with her presence and fortunate with her help, he didn't want to risk changing that. What if it turned out to be incorrect because they all misread her playful behavior for seriousness? That would make for quite the embarrassing and damaging mistake; one he didn't want to make.

"But let's stay on topic, Harry. This means that you didn't have to ask her right? It just happened, no events transpired, no deep looks were given and no actual words being spoken? " Slughorn asked after recovering.

"No uh, I didn't, what are you trying to say?' Harry asked still very much in thought.

Slughorn gained a look of understanding and sympathy before responding. "I'm saying that a fair lady such as Daphne would probably like, and at the very least appreciate it; if you were to formally ask her to go with you, regardless of the fact that you two already are."

Harry slowly nodded. "..I'm sure she would."

"Precisely, Harry! Make it chivalrous, make it special, and if you aren't able to do those things.. You make it genuine, put that above all! Be direct, watch your body language and look her into the eyes." Slughorn said in an experienced and encouraging tone.

"I… yeah, thanks." Harry said uncertainly, feeling strange at receiving this kind of advice from Slughorn and the thought of the entire situation with Daphne.

"You're welcome, come see me if you need any help or advice again. Now the others at the table have likely reached some sort of conclusion by now. Let's rejoin them and hear about it." He said looking satisfied while gesturing to the people at the table with his arm.

A minute later Harry seated himself between Hermione and Daphne again, with Slughorn opposite from him on the other side of the table as usual.

"What was that about, Harry? If you can talk about it that is." Neville asked leaning across the table toward him, voicing the same questions Hermione and Daphne had by the looks of it.

Harry started opening his mouth but was saved from replying as Slughorn voice rang out.

"So has any conclusion regarding the rosters been reached while I and Harry were gone?" He asked putting his hands on the wooden table.

Daphne turned to him and nodded in confirmation. "We have; Wednesday and Saturday evening prove to be the best periods for all Houses, while still being spread apart in the course of the week so that there isn't too much downtime. We will also make and pass around notes as to inform everyone invited about this, after which we will begin with our first lesson on Wednesday next week."

Slughorn briefly lifted his glass to them in a small toast and took a sip before speaking. "Marvelous! All of you, you've once again shown me that it had been the right choice to trust you with this. The lessons for the coming month will be planned out with this, but should anything troubling arise meanwhile, feel free to come speak with me."

"That concludes it for tonight again, you may freely go whenever you want. Daphne, could you show me the rosters and list of invited people again?" Slughorn asked after which Blaise silently stood up from his chair and left for the door, having evidently little reasons to stay any longer now that the important topics had been discussed.

"Sure." Daphne responded taking parchments with her as she left her seat to take Blaise's now vacant one beside Slughorn.

The others at the table remained seated and began conversing with each other while Harry nudged Hermione for attention.

"Hm? What is it, Harry?" Hermione asked curiously after she turned to him.

"I, uh, was wondering." He said tentatively, realizing that he should probably have thought his exact question through.

"Yes?" She patiently asked.

"Well." He said beginning over. "The conversation with Slughorn just now was about formally asking Daphne to the ball with me, since it kind of went automatically for us. He said that she would probably appreciate it if I were to do that."

"And you want to hear from me what I think about that? Also being a girl and all?" She asked in confirmation, looking glad that he was asking guidance from her again.

"Yeah, for example; would you have liked it if Ron had asked you a bit more.. romantically? Genuinely?" He asked noticing that the words 'Ron' and 'romantically' tasted very weird in one sentence. "I mean it's been quite some time ago, but it more or less happened because you two got angry at each other and blurted it out."

She sighed at the memory and nodded. "Slughorn is right, Harry. I would have liked it more in pretty much any other way, but don't tell Ron that."

"In what kind of way would you have preferred it, Hermione? Humorous, Chivalrous, plain, grand?" He asked listing various things of possibility.

"I, uh, would probably like it most if I were to be asked in private. Yes privacy is the most important thing to have, Harry, after that would be the location, and the way itself I were to be asked." Hermione replied starting off a bit slowly at having to answer the personal question.

He nodded. "Private I can understand, but what do you mean with the location and the way you were to be asked?"

She fidgeted a bit at giving details but continued nonetheless. "Well it would be nice if the location was besides being private; also new and charming to look at, but searching for such a location might be a bit much. It'll be fine if you stick with privacy and the way you ask." She said trying to reassure him that he didn't have to rent off a whole country or something like that, which Harry slightly doubted with Daphne being the case here.

He nodded in response, when he had asked Cho for the Yule ball they had been in the snowy clock tower which had been nice to look at in the snow, and not to mention; private.

"And the last thing? The way I were to ask it?"

"Well I would like it if it were done in a serious and convincing way, not in some light tone or the attitude of joking matter. I would want to know that this is what he too really wants and feels." Hermione answered truthfully, forgetting her reserve for a second in the moment of her thoughts.

"That part probably went wrong with Cho.." Harry murmured softy to himself. I probably didn't sound all that confident and convincing either when I asked Cho.

"But don't forget that most of that is just my personal taste, Harry. For example; someone else might like it in a light tone, like when Angelina was asked by Fred for the Yule Ball, it was simple and friendly. I can only say that there are only some guidelines to keep in mind, since there are no written answers to blatantly copy over." She said giving him a look, referring to his and Ron's homework habits.

He groaned. "Why so complicated.. Well thanks anyway, Hermione, it will probably help when I decide to think of something."

"When? Not if?" She asked noticing his words. "It's not like you _have_ to, you know that, right?"

"I know." He said agreeing with her, seeing Daphne brush a blonde lock of hair behind her ear as she pointed at various things on the parchments for Slughorn to see. He might not be some high standing prestigious guy or Prince Charming on a white horse, but he would try his best so that he could give her his best.

"I simply want to. Not out of obligation or duty, but because she would like it."

"I see." Hermione said smiling as she followed his line of vision. "Ask me anytime if you need a second opinion again."

"I will." He said returned the smile, grateful for her insight.

"Say, Harry, how have those practice lessons been going for you with Daphne?" Neville asked joining the conversation.

"They.. helped, I know the dances required, I'll be able to teach them just fine next week." He answered not even knowing where to begin explaining all the events that happen before and after the actual dancing.

"Really? That sure is fast." Neville said in admiration. "No doubt that I'll be needing every single lesson in the coming month."

"Harry picks up things really quickly _if_ he puts his mind to it." Hermione said to Neville in a half complaint half compliment.

"Guys, guys." He said holding his hands up in a stopping gesture at the compliments. "It isn't all that good or special."

"Yes it is." He heard Daphne's voice speak out beside him, having finished business with Slughorn and joined her seat beside him again.

She scooted her chair toward him until they nearly collided and grinned devilishly at him, causing more than few alarm signs to start ringing in his head.

Daphne leaned toward Hermione and Neville before whispering seriously to them. "Especially considering that he's been trying to grope my bum half the time of it."

Neville's jaw fell open and Hermione blushed at the images she got while he himself had both of their reactions combined.

"Please don't listen to her she's just messing around, isn't that right, Daphne?" He said glaring lightly at her.

"I guess so." She replied shrugging before casually speaking to them again as she twirled a lock of hair around her index finger. "He didn't actually do so but I've felt his fingers glide across my back, in search of-"

"-Seriously now, Daphne!" He interjected before she could finish her sentence again, the damage however, was already done as his two companions looked torn between belief, disbelief and humor.

"Fine, fine I admit. It was only a joke." Daphne replied in a bored tone, rolling her eyes.

"Thank you.." He said sighing.

Daphne leaned forward again with Neville and Hermione doing the same in a mixture of curiosity and apprehension. "I rather meant that he was trying to undress me with his eyes, you should've seen his eyes roam all ov-"

"-OK! Enough!" He shouted not caring that the others around the table briefly stopped conversing at his outburst. Luckily Slughorn quickly resumed his story of whatever item he had managed to obtain somewhere distant to the others.

"Geez, Harry, no need to get all aggressive. That's no attitude to take around a lady." Daphne said grinning at getting a rise out of him.

"Sometimes.." He grumbled as he dragged the palm of his hand across his face. Why was he planning to go through all kinds of efforts for her again?

"You two are strange." Neville said dryly, laughing a bit at the show.

"And you haven't even seen anything yet." He said before chuckling along with him, remembering their previous action filled meeting with wands and ropes.

Hermione gave a small laugh with them, and Harry was happy to note that it didn't seem all that forced anymore like it had been in the past regarding Daphne.

"Harry." He heard Daphne call out.

"Yes?" He said looking up and back to her.

"So fast and alert already." She said looking shocked. "Maybe I should start trying to do it in my mind next time and see what happens." She continued, looking thoughtful as she leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table.

He rolled his eyes. "Stop trying to embarrass me already or I'll start ignoring you, what is it?"

She raised an eyebrow at the challenge but continued nonetheless. "I wanted to ask you what kind of robe and mask preference you would have for the masquerade."

He frowned in thought. "Why would you want to know that?"

"Because I'll be getting you your robes, duh. Or rather the people at the shop will, I'll simply arrange in what kind of look and style they will be." She explained as if talking about the weather.

"Oh, well thank you for the gesture but I already have some good ones, the mask will also be taken care of by the Weasley twins." He said slightly uncomfortable at having robes made for him through her.

She looked at him for a second before speaking. "Where did you buy them, how old are they and what colour?"

"Uuh, at Madam Malkin's, they're from fourth year and they're black and white, not really robes either, more like a tuxedo." He said confused by her questions but answering regardless.

"Denied." She said smiling sweetly, not even taking one second to think about it.

He sputtered at the harsh denial and helplessly looked at his friends who looked no better off at understanding her.

"Why?" He finally asked.

Daphne looked like he was daft. "They're from a mediocre shop, two years old and completely the wrong style, we'll be getting them from Ellen's Elegant Robes."

"I don't think there is anything wrong with Madam Malkin's and two years isn't that long, they'll fit just fine." He said frowning, not knowing or remembering where he had seen the likely high class and expensive shop in Diagon Alley.

"I'm just saying that it's the wrong shop for us, we will be going to a specialized one naturally. Besides you've grown quite a bit since fourth year, I did too. Lastly the fact still remains that the style of your current attire would be completely out of tone. No you will have to use new ones, just leave that to me, that way we can also have coordinating robes." Daphne listed off, having none of his reasoning.

He turned to Neville. "Coordinating robes? Meaning like, a pair or something?"

"Yeah, it isn't that unusual or strange, Harry. It is simply a small symbol to show people that they're together at the party, in either a formal way or you know.. together-together kind of way." Neville said emphasizing the last part by interlacing his fingers in a grip.

"Ah." Harry said in understanding.

"So." Daphne piped up. "Now that you understand that and can start cooperating with me; what colour would you prefer for your robes?"

He was at a loss for a moment before replying. "I don't know, something normal; Black and white?"

"Almost. The correct answer was jet black and carmine red so that we have something powerful and different." She replied in a fake apologetic tone.

"I thought that you were asking about my preference.." He said incredulously.

"I did." She said sweetly. "Doesn't mean I will do anything with it."

He sighed knowing that this could go on for a long time with the same result in the end. "Fine do whatever you want, I do want to see them before the party however, so that I can always fall back on my standard from the Yule Ball if you decide to come up with some weird getup."

"Good!" She said happily, bringing her hands together, probably having only heard the 'Fine' part.

"As for the masks we-"

"-I won't change that bit however, I have already made a promise with Ron and Hermione about those, you can however, join us." He said resolutely.

She frowned. "Harry, there aren't many places who make them professionally where would you go to let them be made?"

"We agreed that Fred and George; the Weasley twins could help us out with that. They have their own joke shop now and will can probably make some good ones for us. We've seen them make all sorts of items in there." Hermione answered for him in a friendly tone.

"The Weasley twins?" She said sounding unsure and skeptical as she looked from Hermione to him. "How would I know they haven't made a joke item out of those masks themselves, allowing us to be the first to 'test' them?"

"They owe me some favors, I'll ask of them not to do anything to the masks in return." He said shrugging, pretty sure that they would comply with his wishes.

She sighed in the same way he had and relented. "Fine but same rule counts for me; I want to see them before the party, so that we could always fall back on mine if it turns out that they're jinxed with sticking spells. Or whatever it is they would come up with."

"Sure." He said equally dismissively at her distrust. "Any preference?"

"Yes. Tell them to make half masks while artfully bringing in the aspects of a raven within the designs, and have them be twins of course." She said crossing her arms, a little nettled at revealing her idea.

He rolled his eyes at her specifics. "Not making any promises, but I'll let them know."

"… With black and red colours obviously, don't forget to mention that. Some other colours are fine too but don't overdo it." She continued.

"I will and they won't."

".. And with mine being more feminine of the two." She said unable to keep another one out.

"Yes, Daphne. Anything else?" He drawled, a bit amused at how the list was growing.

"Yes actually, but I won't strain your memory much more than I already have." She said sounding quite serious, about what part he wasn't sure.

"By the way, Neville do you also need a mask from them?" He asked turning to the Longbottom heir.

"Huh? Oh, no thanks Harry. I already have one luckily from the last one I attended some years ago." He said quickly holding his hands slightly up in declination, having been caught up in watching the banter Harry and Daphne displayed before him and Hermione.

"Suit yourself." Harry said shrugging. Making a mental note to himself to write a letter to Fred and George later in the evening.

* * *

"Harry, Hermione!" Ron said in greeting, looking up from a game of chess in which he had just demolished Dean Thomas.

"He's all yours Harry, freaking impossible I tell you.." Dean a bit sourly, standing up from his seat across Ron and presumably moving toward some of his other friends elsewhere.

"Hey Ron." He said grabbing and pulling another chair toward him as he indicated for Hermione to go ahead and seat herself in the now vacant spot Dean left.

"You two are back earlier than normal. Club meetings usually take longer, right?." Ron asked as he rearranged the chess pieces that had begun to mend themselves from the latest onslaught minutes before.

Harry nodded and was glad that Ron didn't become agitated anymore whenever the Slug Club was brought up, if only solely for the fact that he was allowed to come to the party with Hermione.

Hermione shrugged as she seated herself beside Ron with a more than friendly smile. "Progress on the party is going smoothly so we didn't have to discuss everything lengthily."

"Really, so when will the lessons start?" He asked gaining the slightest reddening on his face before turning back to finishing up the last pieces.

"Next Wednesday and Saturday evening. Same schedule continues for the rest of the remaining week's up till the party itself." Harry answered watching as Ron shifted the board into position.

Ron groaned a bit. "All Houses will be there, right?"

"Yes, Ron, all Houses, but that shouldn't be much of a problem right? We will be practicing together and Harry will instruct us a bit. The others will be busy in much the same way." Hermione said rolling her eyes.

"Oh, yeah I'll be practicing with you." Ron said simply, probably having only heard that part of her answer.

"Yeah, so.." Hermione said trailing off a bit as she didn't really know how to respond to that.

Harry quickly decided to continue lest they all sit there in the awkward moment they, yet again managed to create. "She's right, you'll hardly notice the others."

Ron seemed to come out of it as he frowned in response. "How is that possible if those stuck up Slytherins strut around all over the place."

"Because a lot of those stuck up Slytherins aren't invited in the first place, Ron." Harry said calmly. indicating that he'll have a chess match against him by moving one of the pieces on his side.

Ron absentmindedly moved one in response before speaking. "What do you mean? Surely they would be invited right? Being all Pureblood and fancy in their expensive clothes."

Hermione shook her head for him in denial. "Daphne made up most of the list of people to invite, It seems that those who have ties to Death Eaters or Voldemort are not allowed, regardless of their status."

"Why? Isn't Professor Slughorn a Slytherin himself? Wouldn't he want to invite as much of them as possible?" And why would Greengrass herself be allowed to even lead and organize it all, having a family history like her should leave her also out of it." Ron said in a confused tone, nearly missing the move Harry made with his Pawn.

"Being a Slytherin and a Death Eater are two different things Ron, we already talked about that. As for Daphne; I don't really know, my guess is that Slughorn has connections with her parents through either business or the time he used to teach at school here. In any case, he seems to trust them and her in response to whatever reason he has." He replied a bit exasperated, disappointed that Ron still had a long way to go.

"Won't she get in trouble with her Slytherin friends like that?" He said taking Harry's pawn out with his own.

"She's hardly friends with any of them. But she seems to be doing fine for the most part, except for Nott, apparently he's quite the dork these days." He responded, moving a piece is answer to his position.

"Anyway." He said steering back a bit. "It's largely thanks to Daphne that a lot of people like Malfoy and Nott are outside of it all. Think about that for a moment."

Harry could see the gears turning in his head and he hoped that at the very least Ron could start seeing Daphne like he did Davis. Meaning; differently from the rest, special and an exception from the majority. It wasn't much but would be a big help nonetheless in the end.

"And while we're on the topic of Daphne and her family, I might as well tell you guys about it. Seeing that the both of you will come to know about it sooner or later anyway." Harry said as the thought came to him.

"What about her family?" Hermione asked with slight suspicion in her voice and curiosity written on her face.

"Yeah." Ron agreed, moving a piece on the board. "What it is to you?"

Harry briefly glanced around him to see whether or not people were paying attention to them or were within hearing range. Satisfied that the coast was clear he continued. "The Greengrass family have likely managed to join the Order by now. The Davises might also have joined."

"WHAT! HOW?" Ron shouted jumping up from his seat, sprawling chess pieces all about, ruining their game. Hermione looked equally shocked but held much of her composure.

"Sit down." He hissed, yanking Ron down on his seat and looking around to glare at the people who had stopped to watch them, silently telling them to continue with their own business.

"What do you mean they joined the Order, Harry?" Ron said urgently in a half whisper to which Hermione nodded in agreement of the question.

He hurriedly gestured for them to calm down as he started explaining. "It's mostly my own doing, I'll explain, just calm down."

"It started during one of my meetings with Daphne, she explained things about her family and that of Davis. Tracey Davis's mother is a Muggleborn, with her father being Pureblood. Since her father isn't very keen on abandoning them, they'll become a target for Death Eaters sooner or later. Simple as that, Daphne's and her family apparently aren't looking forward to living in such a future either."

Hermione nodded slowly. "I guess the Davis family could manage to join if they're in such a situation."

Ron nodded along with her. "The Davis family doesn't have anything Dark in their history whatsoever. She also doesn't strike me as the type to do so in secret either."

"But how did they know about the Order in the first place?." Hermione asked.

"Oh." Harry said having to backtrack a bit in his story. "Apparently they were there with us at Hogsmeade when we encountered Mundungus selling Sirius's belongings, they also heard us talk a bit about the Order."

"You mean they spied on us." Ron said accusingly, frowning as he did so.

"Urgh, Yeah they kind of did, but Daphne admitted that it had been mostly her doing, Davis hadn't been a fan of it." Harry said at least saving some of the blame from being unjustly put on Davis. "In any case, I vaguely mentioned that my parents had been in a resistance group and after that she put two and two together and told Davis whose family probably approached Dumbledore sometime later."

"But I might be wrong about the Davis, maybe Dumbledore declined or maybe the Davis themselves still have to approach him. I don't know since I have yet to hear more from Daphne, but it's possible."

"Fine!" Ron exclaimed. "Davis is reasonably trustworthy but the Greengrasses are a completely different side of the coin. They've only been neutral in the First Wizarding war. Or so they claim at least."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked perplexed, noticing that Ron was beginning to let out a flood that had been withheld for some time.

Ron threw his hands up as if it was obvious for everyone to see. "What I mean is that they might as well have lied about that like the Malfoy's did! At the very least allying themselves by making all kinds of deals with Voldemort behind the scenes during the war!"

"It's fishy, Harry; first she spies on us, forces herself into your life with her plans, separates us all by using up all your free time and finally uses you to get into the Order so that her parents can spy on ours in return!"

"Ron, calm down, this might simply be one big misunderstanding. I'm sure that Harry could explain." Hermione said tentatively as she laid her hand on his shoulder to push him back into his seat, giving Harry a look. To which he noticed that she too didn't look to be all that much on his or Daphne's side anymore after hearing the new things about her from him and the dubious but dangerous possibilities from Ron.

He sighed as he rubbed between his eyes, feeling a bit of sleepiness left from the past weeks and realizing that he should probably tell them something he didn't want to, but _had_ to in order for them to see that Daphne was doing positive things _for_ him, not _against_ him.

"I can understand that these things look really doubtful now, even more so than before but it really is just a misunderstanding, Daphne spoke the truth and isn't deceiving me. No doubt whatsoever there."

"Feeling isn't always enough, Harry, the Ministry proved that." Hermione said gently.

"I know.." He said a bit bitterly, but understanding her argument regardless, remembering how he had rushed to the Ministry to 'save' Sirius. Only for it to end in a disaster that could have been avoided entirely by using his head instead of his heart.

"Listen.. Since the battle at the Ministry, since Sirius died I've been having nightmares, a lot more than usual, they're horrible and completely mess up my sleep. They still bother me and make me dread the moment I have to go to sleep." He confessed in a defeated tone.

"I-we suspected as much, you still look tired, although not as much as before. Luckily" Hermione said softly in sympathy while Ron got a faraway look on his face in his memories of the battle. "But what has this got to do with Daphne, Harry?"

"Well she's helping me with Occlumency-"

"-Occlumency!" Ron interrupted sounding incredulous. "Now she is also tearing secrets out of you?"

"She isn't , Ron!" He said heatedly, getting sick of having to continuously defend an innocent person of false claims.

"She doesn't invade further than the forefront of my mind, as such she can't look into my thoughts, memories or feelings. This method works just as good as Snape's, probably even better as it doesn't leave me with my head splitting in pain."

"Why are you taking them?" Hermione said quickly. "A-are you also having visions again of.." She trailed off worriedly while Ron paled a bit. Thinking that he was seeing into Voldemort's mind again.

He shook his head at them. "No it's not because of that, it's for the nightmares. Anyway she told me about a different branch Occlumency can be used for when she learned of my problem."

"A different kind of Occlumency?" Ron asked frowning, mostly in suspicion rather than confusion of the unknown subject.

"Yes, one that specializes in controlling dreams; Somniamency. I've already read a little about it in the book about the Mind Arts she gave me. If I were to learn it, I could control my dreams and keep those nightmares away."

"Occlumency to ward off dreams? I.. I didn't know about that." Hermione admitted, sounding ashamed of not having known about it whereas someone else did.

"That's great, Harry, but it could still mean it it's all just an act to win your confidence in her." Ron said in a much more calm tone, having calmed down a bit after Hermione had silently urged him to.

Harry sighed. "I know it isn't a waterproof reason or example but I'm only telling about it in the hope to convince you two. She wouldn't have noticed the causes had she not closely paid attention to me, not to mention that she would never have heard it from me had I detected even a sliver of deceit."

He continued when they silently thought it over. "You guys should know by now that my judgements in people have been accurate by like.. ninety nine percent."

"Your right, Harry, I'll believe in your trust of Daphne." Hermione said nodding. Likely giving Daphne the benefit of the doubt again only because of the few, but still positive interactions she had experienced with Daphne herself and seen from him.

Harry smiled in relief at her support but felt it falter a bit when Ron spoke.

"Fine, but I'll watch out for you. In case we hit that one percent." Ron said giving some ground. To which Harry nodded,

Hopefully Ron would come to see it if he gave Daphne more of a chance. But he guessed that something like this was better than having him storm off without even hearing a word of them.

Maybe just maybe, the hesitant friendliness he shared with Davis prevented him from completely ignoring Harry's words for Daphne. Somewhere in the back of Ron's head there might be a little voice telling him that he might be wrong about Daphne, that not everything could be as it seems.

Harry knew that Ron appreciated the Frozen Luck Davis had freely given to him in a sign of goodwill, he still inspected the miniature growth of his ever budding plant every morning in the hope that it would soon bloom and give him that little bit of luck.

"But I still have to bring us back to the subject, Harry. You still haven't told us how you helped her and her family with joining the Order, you stated it as a fact unlike with the Davis family. What did you do for Dumbledore to accept them?" Hermione asked puzzled at the unanswered question

"Well so far I haven't heard from her yet that it's official but we might as well presume it to be. Dumbledore won't say no." He said evadingly for they were entering the subject of the Prophecy.

"Dumbledore won't say no?" She asked sharing a look with Ron. "And you're absolutely sure about that? Why? How?"

Harry shrugged and made a vague gesture with his hands, knowing that he would have to divert a bit from the truth. "Basically told her some pretty important things the Order is currently protecting. No scratch that, it actually isn't that important, but Dumbledore will be adamant about keeping it under wraps either way."

It wasn't a lie. He _did_ tell her something important that fell under one of the things the Order fought for to protect. But it actually wasn't that important either, it was the part of the Prophecy that Voldemort already knew about. There was no harm in letting her family know that part, Dumbledore however, would likely take no chances with letting the information out of his sight uncontrolled and thus; would recruit them.

"Are you mad? What did you tell her anyway? You didn't tell her the location of the headquarters, right?" Ron asked incredulous as he openly gaped at him while Hermione shared an equally shocked look.

"No, nothing like that, I'm not stupid. I told her some info; info she and her family won't understand, it's useless information, to them and the enemy." He said shaking his head.

Hermione edged forward on her seat with a concerned look. "Harry, I don't like saying this to you but I have to agree with Ron; what were you thinking relaying information from the Order to her? Even if it was in the notion of helping; or even saving her family."

"You're telling me I should just have abandoned them then? Abandoned her? Someone who was in need of help and just leave it be despite having the tools to help, so that I can save my own hide?!" He fired off frustrated. What good would having power and resources do if you didn't use your strength to fight for your loved ones and the materials you had for support and protection?

Hermione sighed at the apparently difficult question. "No, Harry but even if the information isn't somehow useful to the enemy, think about the repercussions if things went wrong. Just hypothetically Harry; what if things _are _as what they seemed to us just moments before and the information was taken from you in a false sense of security? This is also _our _hide, Harry."

"It's not like-"

"-It doesn't matter whether or not it was important. It's about the fact _that_ you told somebody else, not _what_. It may as well have been about something else and you would have relayed it, believing it to be safe with them because they are Daphne's family." Hermione continued, ignoring his protests.

"Look can we stop accusing her or her family? I knew what I was doing." He asked heatedly.

"Could've fooled me." Ron grumbled unhelpfully as Hermione trailed off about it being meant in a hypothetical sense. "You've been raving on now but what it is that you told her anyway?" Ron asked.

Harry's ire instantly doused and he grimaced at what was to come. "You guys are better off not hearing it. Knowing about it won't help you like Daphne and her family." It wasn't a very good excuse and they all knew it. But it was all he could come up with, he felt stuck and tangled as word webs came unhinged.

"Well I wouldn't know you haven't even tried by telling us." Ron said irritated.

Hermione looked a bit hurt at his refusal but continued. "Harry, this has been going on for weeks, we're your friends..."

"That is exactly why, Hermione. It's not worth it, just believe me." He said almost pleadingly. He couldn't tell them, anything but that…

"Oh, so you can tell Greengrass but not us? After everything that has happened? This is bull, I'm going to bed." Ron simply said before standing up and walking away up to the stairs. Not shouting, not stomping, and not even fuming. Only sounding to be irritated but Harry knew better than that.

Hermione eyes were downcast as she stared at her interlaced fingers on her lap in silence.

He sighed again and ran a hand through his hair. He hated doing this, it was becoming more and more obvious to them that he was withholding information, in all this time he hadn't answered one of their questions about the rumored prophecy in the papers, withheld his problem with his nightmares; which they now knew about much later, started Occlumency again in response to his dreams. And now again with the so called information on the Order. It was a good thing he had momentarily stopped his training, lest they also ask more about that.

They weren't angry, simply disappointed. If he could choose, he would rather have them be angry at him, but what right did he have to want anything of them anyway.

"I'm also going to bed early, I'm quite tired, Harry, I'll see you tomorrow, just prepare your arguments for when a talk with Professor Dumbledore comes again. He won't be pleased." She said softly before standing up much like Ron did and leaving for the stairs to her dorm.

He hunched forward, staring silently at the black king that still lay defeated at his feet on the ground from when Ron had jumped up in shock.

Hermione hadn't sounded tired, but reacted more like he had failed to answer the simplest of questions after weeks of effort. Ron sounded only a bit irritated but probably hadn't even managed to summon his anger anymore.

'Born as the seventh month dies' that was what he had told Daphne which naturally didn't make any sense to her. To Ron and Hermione however, especially Hermione; it could, for they might lay the connection from the seventh month to that of his birthday, causing them to realize that it's about him, which in turn would spring forth even more questions from them. Not to mention that they might link it to the lost Prophecy the Death Eaters lured him in for at the Ministry, it would be a bit of a stretch to link them together but better safe than sorry.

Harry didn't want them or Daphne to know about the Prophecy; it was unavoidable, grim, and unchangeable. It should be only his destiny to face. Not telling them about it was the only way to keep them safe, even if only for a little bit. He wanted to avoid another Ministry battle from happening again, it was thanks to them that he got out alive but they had nearly paid with their lives to do so.

They would try to help him again if they were to hear the Prophecy, try to follow him again to places that would cost them their lives. He had been lucky, _they_ had been lucky but such blessings would not last. His dreams continuously showed him the future of such endeavors with the horrifying outcome being varied upon each and every time.

He couldn't face anyone dying again because they had to protect him and the Prophecy. He had already trained and gotten stronger; he could start fighting for their lives too instead of barely managing to keep his own with their help included.

Hopefully Daphne's parents would honor his request and lend him the book to see, it would surely help him in both his capacity to protect them as well as his research on Voldemort's anchoring since he had struck a dead end with both of those with only the censored books of Hogwarts being available to use, and he sure as hell didn't want to ask the entity either.

Harry softly trudged upstairs some time later; he hadn't been in the mood to interact with anyone else after his… fight with Ron and Hermione, if he could call it that.

He stepped over some clothes that had been thrown on the ground and saw the sleeping silhouette of Ron behind his curtains, having indeed gone early to bed.

He also felt tired and wanted to put it out of his mind, it would probably take some time for Ron and Hermione to come around again. It wasn't the first time in their years together that disagreements caused them to be apart for some time and likely wouldn't be the last time either.

Harry glanced at his bed in both dread and longing but decided to put off the inevitable for a little while longer by reading more into the Mind Arts.

* * *

**Harry, you dun goofed.**

**What to say about the developments right? Good intentions with bad results? The card house of half-truths/half-lies threatens to collapse? Harry sure is an ass/hardhead? Well probably all of them. This isn't the last of it either.**

**Hopefully I don't have to convey/explain Harry's feelings and personal reasons for doing so in an AN as that should have been noticeable through the course of the story up till now, if not then simply say so and how/why, otherwise I wouldn't know about my error.**

**As for the Deathly Hallows.. I won't be using those in my story, it's one of the few things, if not the only one that I disliked in the HP universe. Harry's cloak will just be an invisibility cloak, thus also making it summonable (if that's a word). Dumbledore has his own wand with Gaunt's ring being an artifact of the past. Still a thank you to those who pointed it out, please continue to do so in the future with other issues :p**

**Harry's wand also isn't all super-powered against Voldemort specifically after their encounter at the graveyard because reasons.**

**Clockwise02: Helpful review, thank you :) the cloak; well you probably already read the above. Assimilation; agreed and there will be an individual little mechanism regarding both the power and personality but that's still some time away.**

**capo327: Dunno whether or not this chapter will explains things or annoy you more in that regard x) it's more a case of disbelief than anything else right now, either way; all in time.**

**Great to hear from you all that I appear to be doing good on the H/D and that everyone seems to enjoy it so far.**

**Also when I did a little bit of more research in masquerades, I learned that the half masks are called Vizards! Naturally I immediately applied this in the chapter so that Daphne can express her superior knowledge on them.**

**100k+ words reached! That's like equivalent to 200 novel pages.. oh well, just keep her going!**


	17. Smuggling Plans and The Gift

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter Universe and all the characters belong to J.K. Rowling.

* * *

Harry moved past old and richly detailed tapestries that hung from the walls, there was still plenty of light from the low hanging sun that casted shadows over the portraits that showed up every few meters. Some of the paintings were asleep, some were empty, some were together talking upbeat to each other in one of their frames as they drank.

He was on his way to the usual classroom having left the common room, there wasn't much to stay for with Ron and Hermione being as they were right now. Namely being quiet and a bit standoffish. He let them, they seemed to enjoy their time together more and more these days as he watched them from a small distance. Still that didn't mean that they were completely ignoring him, rather seeming to await his apology.

But he thought otherwise; he had been right in his choices. He could wait it out and read up on Occlumency in the meantime.

He now mainly ate and spend time with Neville and the others in the Great Hall, but was always feeling mixed about whether or not he should have his back toward Daphne during his time at the Great Hall, it's not that he wanted to avoid the rumors; he didn't care much about the word of his willing cooperation with Daphne anymore, he never did in all actuality and simply pretended to be stupid and deaf when asked about it by anxious groups of girls.

No he was indecisive because she would always shoot that sly smile at him when she somehow sensed that no one was looking. It made his appetite lesson or disappear altogether everytime..

Harry had just rounded a corner when he heard something behind him. footsteps. He didn't falter in his speed nor did he speed up, giving no indication that he had noticed the new presence which was presumably some distance behind him.

"Potter." He heard male a voice speak almost commandingly. Harry paid no heed to the tone and continued with the same pace, the tone of that single word had told him enough; this person wasn't much fun to be around with.

"Harry Potter, I wish to speak with you." The voice called again a bit louder, patiently but with underlying irritation at being ignored the first time around.

He gave a short sigh, knowing that he couldn't act deaf forever, stopped and turned around to face whoever had called out to him. "Yes?"

"Ah yes, I knew it was you after all, I was beginning to think otherwise after you didn't respond the first time around." Theodore Nott said as he came closer, having been the person that called out to him.

Harry felt his mood from the prospect of spending some time with Daphne dampen as he looked in the arrogant eyes of the Nott heir, the same person who had bothered Daphne and was most likely the cause of the rumors suddenly spreading so fast.

Nott was quite long but also shared that aspect with a rather thin frame, with hardly if any baby fat left giving his face a dented and hollow look, being accentuated even more so with the shadows that the lowering sun cast over them. His hair was black, short and spiky with dark brown eyes that didn´t radiate much warmth, if any.

"I walked past some busy paintings, didn't hear you the first time around." Harry said surprising himself that he even bothered to make some kind of excuse in the first place.

"Yes, I'm sure you didn't, otherwise you would have surely responded to me." Nott said as he ran his bony hands down his school robes to get the few wrinkles out of them from the miniscule walk he had undertaken.

"I'm sure that you're not here to tell me what kind of weather to expect tomorrow, what do you want Nott?" He asked bluntly, not in the mood to have long winded and meaning underlying conversations with him right now, nor anywhere in the future for that matter.

Nott straightened in a condescending posture that reminded him of the one Daphne had taken on at their first encounter on the train. "I see, straight to the point as I would have expected from someone like you, but I can appreciate that. Everyone has their qualities."

"I'm honored, by your words." He said sarcastically and making no effort to hide it. "Are we going somewhere with this or can I leave?"

"Not yet, for I believe this to be well within the range of your.. interests regarding Greengrass."

Harry couldn't help it, his attention was swiftly taken. "What about her?"

Nott smiled in such a way that Harry felt the slightest urge to wipe it off of his face with his fist. "Well, you see; the Slytherin House is very tight knitted, we know where each of us stand, where our loyalties lie and what the consequences of any shifts mean. Developments will be noted sooner or later, there are no secrets in Slytherin."

"Meaning you bully your own Housemates to keep them in line because some of you think that's the right thing to do?" Harry asked narrowing his eyes.

Nott tried to look offended at the notion before continuing. "Oh no, we do no such thing, certainly not. It's merely a… policy of ours to not busy ourselves too much with the others. No I'm talking about something else entirely."

"What is it then?" He asked despite knowing that all of this was probably what Daphne had mentioned before, that Nott would try to talk him out of it.

"I'll get to the point; these are dangerous times, Potter, you should know everything about it. The Greengrasses were a neutral family in the last war but things might start to look different to the Dark Lord if her involvement with you continues, no matter what her parents claim about neutrality." Nott said in a voice of sympathy and concern.

"Oh? You seem quite knowledgeable on the subject, I might start thinking that you're watching her a little bit too closely." Harry said suspiciously.

He simply shrugged the accusation off. "Not at all, Potter, it's general information everyone knows about, but I do try to watch out for my fellow Housemates, yes. And for the very same reason I stand here before you, hoping you will help me safeguard her wellbeing."

"Well, I'm just her classmate, nothing special about it, any concern is unnecessary we simply work well together in class." He said in a light tone, pretending that it didn't mean much.

Nott shook his head before leaning forward a bit. "No, you are more than that, Potter, I know so for sure; you are her date to the party, something like that can't be explained away by giving some excuse, it will not go unnoticed and will make a statement to all."

"So? What are you suggesting then? At least If I am correct to assume you approached me for more reasons than to simply point that obvious fact out." Harry asked shifted his arm a bit to feel that his wand was indeed in the pocket of his robe, ready for use.

"I do." Nott said as his dark eyes stared into his. "Potter, you should stop concerning yourself with her, withdraw from the masquerade, you will bring her in jeopardy and it would be my deepest regret to see such a beautiful young lady like her fall victim to the danger you will inevitably bring upon her, you should do this if you have her best interests in mind."

Harry felt the muscles in his jaw tighten as a forceful breath went out of his nose and had to make an effort to relax his jaw. She would be involved either way and luckily he already had her protection covered, Daphne would be in one of the safest places available; Hogwarts and if things proved otherwise or less fortunate she could always be moved toward Grimmauld Place under protection of the Fidelius Charm.

"Yeah well, it's not something you need to concern yourself with, we'll manage." Harry said dropping pretense for a heated glare.

"You would forsake her safety? Endanger her life?" Nott asked calmly, raising an eyebrow.

"No harm will befall Daphne, not from Voldemort, his followers or from you, I'll make sure of it." He said angrily, shouldering past Nott, his sticky frame staggering a bit from the force.

"Just think about it, Potter, for her sake too." He heard Nott's voice say to him as it was carried through the empty hallway as Harry went in the opposite direction.

"Asshole." He gritted through his teeth, frustrated that someone like Nott could reach Daphne anytime he wanted in their common room. Hogwarts might be safe from anything coming from the outside but not from that which was already inside.

Nott, or anyone for that matter better not dare try anything against Daphne. The thought made his heartbeat quicken and his fingers twitch to hold his wand securely.

He stopped his aggressive pace and took a few deep calming breaths as he looked through one of the wet and cold windows over the frost layered grounds. Nott wanted to confuse him and frustrate him so that he would start doubting his choices…

Harry collected his thoughts before turning away from the scenery and started walking again. He had a meeting with Daphne.

* * *

Harry knocked on the door to the now; all too well known classroom. Letting her know that he was coming in, lest she be 'busy' again..

"You can come in, don't worry." was the muffled reply that came from behind the door.

He couldn't help but smile after opening the door, the mood he had gained from Nott already receding as he was greeted by the face that more than once drifted through his mind during different times of the day, no matter the time and task. During those times he longed to go see to see her attractive features, tempting smell, and engaging words.

He felt slight disappointment as he already saw the desk standing ready in the middle of the room so that he could Transfigure it to a couch. Quietly signaling that his private dancing lessons with her had come to an end. He knew that he would still be dancing with her during the supplementary lessons but it wouldn't be quite the same, holding her soft and warm body in a private room already held more appeal to him.

"Come on, I won't bite." She said grinning at his slow pace.

She had done her hair in a low ponytail again with the bundled hair being draped over one of her shoulders down her chest. It was a hairstyle she had half of the times he saw her and always pulled more attention to the features of her face with less of her blond hair surrounding it.

Daphne stepped forward when he stopped in front of her and threw her arms around his neck in a sudden but affectionate hug as she slightly nuzzled into his neck, as if seeking to press her entire being against him.

He didn't stiffen as he normally would have from such a sudden affectional and physical action, not after all their lessons. Besides; Daphne's body felt good to have in his arms again he idly thought as he felt his own arms come up around her in a subconscious agreement.

He did have second thoughts however, about her hairstyle as her naked unblemished neck came close to his face in their embrace, giving him the urge to do… _something _to it but managed to withhold whatever desire it had been as he heard her softly speak.

"I received word from my parents, Harry. My family and Tracey's have all joined the Order… it's all thanks to you, it would have been impossible especially for mine.. So, thanks again." She said in the most humble and grateful tone he had ever heard from her thus far.

"I'm glad that it worked out then." He said as he slid out of their embrace, lest he find himself unable to escape her.

She nodded and smiled a bit. "Naturally we'll pretend not be involved in anything of the kind if Death Eater recruiters decide to stop by again. So we can drag things out as much as possible."

"That would be the best thing to do." He said in agreement feeling no regret, any kind of conversation or punishment would be worth helping Daphne and her friend.

"Daphne.. could I ask you to consider the information I gave you about the Order the same as anything in regards to my training?" He asked feeling the need to close the potential gap of information about the Prophecy to Hermione and Ron.

"Meaning; secret from anyone besides Tracey?" She asked frowning at the question.

"Well I would rather that you didn't tell Tracey about this either to be sure." He replied.

She gave him a suspicious look. "Why do you ask? Is it because you've had a fight with your friends? I can easily see so in the Great Hall, Harry."

"Please just do so without questions, as a thanks to my help with the Order if you will." He said sighing, he didn't want to go through it all with her either.

She didn't look happy at his request but seemingly complied as she didn't continue on the subject, much to his relief. "Fine, and since we are on the topic already, I can also tell you that I have also received an answer to the book you requesting alongside the confirmation they gave me of the business with the Order."

He looked up in attention to her dissatisfied face, whether that was because of his request to secret keeping or the book he didn't know, maybe both. "And? What did they say?"

"They agreed." She replied looking uncomfortable as she crossed her arms beneath her chest, hugging herself, having evidently hoped for the opposite. "They too expressed great gratitude to you in their letter and will honor your request, father also wants you to think about what you're getting yourself into."

He smiled in relief but felt it falter at her discomfort, he didn't like seeing her like that. "I will, did they mention anything else?"

"Hm." She softly replied, humming in dim acknowledgement. "They wrote that you would have to find some way to get it inside since they obviously can't send it straight to you, since every owl needs to be checked before being allowed inside Hogwarts."

He nodded in an unseen agreement to her parents thinking and reasoning, luckily he had already thought up on a way to get it inside unseen and unnoticed.

"You don't seem to be that put down by that fact, what have you thought of?" She asked apprehensively after seeing him give little response to the problem that opposed them.

"I-no, let's seat ourselves before that, or we'll be standing here until we start with Occlumency again." He said moving toward the desk and Transfiguring it into the usual couch again, the little tug of his wand having occurred so many times by now that he ignored it without thought.

"It's a method that will only work for us, because we have the items we need for it such as the Cloak, sadly it will also take some time." He said as Daphne joined him close by on the couch.

"Explain then; why would it take a long time? What's your plan?" She asked a bit skeptically at the chance of any plan succeeding in their task to smuggle something inside the castle.

He shrugged as he started with the first step. "It's not very spectacular; most of it will be done by our owls, since we'll send them back to your house to retrieve the book and then back to Hogwarts."

"Why send 'our owls'? I just told you that using owls won't work, it doesn't matter if you use one or a thousand; they will all be checked after which the book will be discovered and confiscated." Daphne rebutted.

"You're right and my bad, I wasn't very specific, we won't be sending multiple owls to try and confuse the checking system or anything like that; any surge of owls would simply be put on halt until each and every one of them is checked and approved of." He said indicating with his head before continuing.

"No, I'll send Hedwig along with your owl back to your home so that she knows where your house is, once there Hedwig will take the book with her and fly back to the Shrieking Shack while your owl returns to Hogwarts with a letter from your parents. When Hedwig arrives at the Shack she will drop the book there and go to the Owlery, shortly after that your owl will return to you with the letter your parents have send to you in pretense of delivering another simple message."

Daphne was silent for a moment as she thought it over before replying. "So you plan to have our owls travel simultaneously to their destinations, with your owl acting as the actual courier and mine as a fake messenger?"

"Exactly, your owl will carry some written message from your parents; doesn't really matter what and will simply serve to let us know that the book has arrived, the distance between the shack and Hogwarts is isn't very long with the Shack being first for Hedwig to pass."

"Quite the elaborate plan, is it really necessary? Why not have my owl deliver both the message and letter?"

"No insult intended but Hedwig will most likely make the journey faster than any other owl despite carrying a book, besides I don't think your owl knows where the Shrieking Shack is or does it?" Harry asked honestly.

"No, you're right He doesn't. You really thought this through." She said while nodding. "And after that you plan to use your Cloak to sneak out of Hogwarts into the Shack? Seeing as to how you planned everything up till now, I would take a guess and say that you also thought of some way to do just that, despite the entire castle being closed at night?"

He smiled. "I do; I'll use one of the secret passages that will lead me outside the castle. After that I will go beneath the roots of the Whomping Willow, where a tunnel is dug that will lead me directly into the Shrieking Shack, I'll go through that after exiting the castle with the cloak and retrieve the book Hedwig left behind there."

"And the Headmaster doesn't know about any of these passages? They're just blind spots in our defenses for anyone to use?" Daphne asked frowning at the implications. "How do you know about this passage anyway?"

"No, I'm pretty sure he does and has placed patrols and guards in the form of paintings and ghosts at those places, luckily I'll have the Cloak to help get past those. As for the passage.. that's a long story for another time."

Daphne nodded before smiled pleasantly but it didn't seem very natural causing him to get the feeling that he wasn't going to like what was coming.

Harry frowned, looks like he had been right in his feeling.. "No there is a reason why I explained it with 'I', there is no 'us' or 'we' in this. I won't be picking you up Daphne, I'll be doing this alone."

Her sweet smile turned dangerous and he was reminded of Veela transforming into their aviary forms at the slightest income of emotional negativity. "You will, Harry, have you forgotten the second rule we made about this book already? Rule two states that the book will remain in my possession at all times; it doesn't matter that you only have it briefly for the sake of retrieving it."

"What? You can't trust me with it for one night?" He asked incredulously.

"Of course I do." She said a bit uptight before focusing on him. "What about you, not going to keep your word? I oversee your time spend with the book and outside of that I get to keep it with me. These were the promises we made regarding the book. Are you going to break them over something like this?"

"I know what I agreed to, Daphne.. but I'll just go retrieve it, there is no need to have you come along all the way to the Shack at night, if the scenario happens where we would be caught; it would be together instead of just me."

She shrugged at his logic. "I decided to come with you so it would be my own fault."

"Even so, it wouldn't make a difference with you being there, it would fail or succeed regardless."

"You wouldn't know unless you tried." Daphne said stubbornly, crossing her arms as she frowned.

Harry suppressed the urge to groan and tried his last card. "You know, I _could_ just go and leave to retrieve it without you…"

"That would _sadden_ me greatly, Harry, after which I might decide to incinerate certain paragraphs of the book in my emotional state upon seeing it again." She said with a promising look, rather making him think that the word she really meant was anger instead of sadden.

"You would burn your ancestors' book after having it out of your possession for one night?" He asked a bit incredulous as he raised an eyebrow, trying to determine whether or not she was bluffing. Surely she wouldn't burn the book her family had for centuries? It was still an ancient item from her family bloodline which they choose to keep despite their dislike for it.

"No, just certain parts I obviously can't leave in there for you to see, since you would prove yourself to be incapable of being trusted upon if you were to break our promises, even if only for a single night. No excuses will be made in what we promised." Daphne said resolutely.

"I know you're protective of this, Daphne but isn't burning the tome of your ancestors a bit much?" He said frowning in thought at her rather extreme penalties, not that he could entirely blame her for thinking so, the foresight of not sneaking a peek inside the book unnoticed and unseen was indeed hard to resist already.

"No, it isn't." She simply said in a softer tone.

He studied her for several moments before asking the question that was on his mind. "What has gotten you all riled up, Daphne?"

She didn't reply immediately like he had expected her to, instead her eyes refused to make contact with him as she looked sideways to a fixated point on the ground.

"Nothing." She said softly.

He didn't make any indication that he acknowledged her answer, he just sat there as he once again studied her meek and withdrawn posture. She held it just as long as he held his gaze, wondering why she was once again so touchy on the subject of the Dark Arts and the things that entailed it, most prominently; her own book.

"Are you still sure about this? That book is no joke and the things inside it about the Dark Arts even less, father didn't ask you so in his letter for no reason, he experienced it firsthand." She asked slowly, looking back up at him.

He nodded slowly, feeling slight hesitation at her expression being mixed into his decision. "I am, I need means of fighting, Daphne. Voldemort isn't going to let my continued existence go unpunished, I am a permanent target. I won't be able to run and hide forever."

She stiffened a bit at the name. "Yes, the Dark Lord hunts you.."

"Call him Voldemort, it's just a name. Dark Lord is almost.. respectful." He said thinking back on Nott.

She gave an apologetic expression. "Sorry, it's just a habit to always appear respectful. Not that I am but saying otherwise attracts attention in Slytherin."

He nodded his understanding, what were a few words if it kept you out of trouble?

She scooted a bit closer and he could easily start to make out the few loose blond hairs that dared defy her bundled hair.

"And you're really sure he always will? Voldemort would always come seek you? You can't just run away from all of this?" She asked looking at the floor in front of her.

He smiled wistfully and shook his head. "I wouldn't help anyone by running, in the end I would come to face him anyway, the only change being that all would be lost already. No I mustn't run, even if that is what I desperately want to do sometimes.."

She leaned against him more, but not in a teasing manner, she only seemed to seek solace and reassurance for both him and herself as she gently laid her hand on top of his while resting her head on his shoulder "I want to help you Harry, but it feels like I'm endangering you at the same time with the book, I want you to stay safe. From both sources."

"You are already being enough help, Daphne, any more would make me worried quite frankly." He said voicing some of his concerns on her involvement with him.

"Yeah well, just deal with it." She said repeating her earlier words in a less gloomy tone before giving the back of his hand a soft squeeze. "Because I'm not going anywhere."

"You have nothing to worry about, the book will pose no threat if that's what you are worried about, it'll be fine." He said trying to reassure her concerns. It was unusual for Daphne to show her worries in this kind of way, the book being ready to send over with a plan to back it up seemed to make her anxious. But Harry would be prepared for anything it might bring and anything the Arts may try to influence him with, he had always shown resilience to such affects and would do so again.

She simply nodded before speaking up with more life in her voice again as she lifted her head from his shoulder. "We discussed our plan and agreed that we will recover it together the night it arrives. Together, right Harry?" She asked wanting to hear confirmation from him.

"Fine. And we'll send our owls later tonight." He said with a sigh, he wasn't going to convince her on this and after seeing how uncomfortable it made her feel, he felt little of his will left to continue trying.

The only answer he got was a small smile lightly tugging at her lips in relief.

It was quite new to see, the other times had been short and few but now things were getting closer and more real. He needed little time to decide for himself that he didn't like seeing her like this. Concerned. Troubled. Withdrawn.

Her confident and provocative nature suited her much better, he thought with a small smile. The way she flaunted every little success with that high-handed flip of her hair, had to come up with the most absurd plans at the most inconvenient of times, and bloated visibly at compliments and knightly gestures.

Not to mention that devilish smile, mischievous and alluring with eyes dancing as if little fires came to life within them, almost giving him the idea that she idly toyed with plans of world domination in her mind only for her to know about, causing her to lightly mock the outside world for not being able to see the same.

"What are you smiling for?" She asked a bit puzzled that he was apparently smiling for no apparent reason.

"Nothing." He said before switching to a subject that would likely lift her spirits and comfort her lingering worries.

"If her Majesty has any more specifications she would like to register than she should do so now, the letter to our manufacturer for the masks; Fred and George Weasley will be posted shortly after our meeting ends, with a school owl, of course." He said in his best imitation of Percy, making his voice sound overbearing and drawling.

The small smile tugged upwards at its corners and grew a little wider. "Shut up, it doesn't suit you. And I know what I said last time but it should be fine with what you already have, the list doesn't need to be any longer."

"Are you sure? Anything less than perfect would be no good of course, ask anything and your humble servant would obey to the best of his ability." He said continuing with the voice just as easily, the growing smile on her face being all the motivation he needed.

"You don't have to obey every word I say… although it would do you good to do so most of the time. And you are no servant, Harry, that wouldn't fit you." Daphne said looking at him with an appraising look. "Lord would fit you better."

He snorted at the ludicrous idea. "Don't be silly, I'm not fit for any of that."

"Lord Harry Potter." She said as if testing the sound of it, ignoring his response. "I like it, in any case I'll make sure to dress you like one, you'll look dashing."

"I know you will." He said rolling his eyes. "How much are those robes going to cost anyway?"

"Hm? Oh don't worry about that, you don't have to pay for them. After all, I am the one being insistent about it." She said waving it away as if it were a couple of Sickles.

"That may be so but I don't really like the idea of having you or your parents pay them for me. These robes are meant for me, just tell me the general price I can expect." He said not wanting to have Daphne's parents whom he can't even thank properly purchase such robes for him on Daphne's whim.

She shrugged uncaringly, not really thinking much of it. "They won't mind, Harry, consider it another sign of gratitude of you will, just like I did for you earlier. Besides I could simply lie about the price here and now so that you'll end up only paying like one tenth of the original amount."

"I have Neville to verify such prices." He countered, proving that even without direct knowledge he wouldn't be so easily fooled.

Daphne gave the kind of grin that usually signaled his defeat. "Then I'll play your game and simply withhold it altogether, buy them anyway and shove them in your closet when I get them."

"How tactful." He said dryly, not all that surprised by her blunt approach when finer ways didn't work out for her.

Still he wasn't so easily beaten even if it was more for the fun of it than anything else right now. "Then I'll refuse to wear them and take out my old attire from the Yule Ball."

"I'll burn them right off of your bum if you dare wear those, Don't worry I'll be sure to miss important places when I cast my Incendio." She promised rather than said as she began to toy with her blonde hair that lay across her shoulder and chest.

"Hey, that wasn't what we agreed to, I was allowed to wear my own if I didn't want to it in the end." Harry said trying to sound indignant as possible.

"Well, I lied, you'll never wear those if it's up to me." Daphne admitted nonchalantly, giving a casual shrug.

"Then… I won't go to the party at all." He said finally, wondering what she would do to counter that

Daphne huffed at his apparently pathetic solution as she inspected the tips of her hair between her thumb and index finger. "You lose, Harry, Just admit it. There will be no way out, not going to the masquerade isn't even an viable option, for I will send my trump card after you at that point."

"Who or what could possibly force me to go to the party at that point?" He asked curious as to what she could do that would apparently leave him with no other choice than to come anyway.

"Why, Horace, of course." She said through her sweet smile that promised she would unleash the hounds of hell upon him.

He blanched a bit. "Urgh..Yeah, your right, Slughorn wouldn't let me be late for even five minutes after all that buildup for him. The man would probably go into a fist fight with a troll if it were to guard my door…"

Daphne only nodded in a satisfied manner.

"I'll repay your parents some other way then.." He said finally, admitting defeat that was long overdue.

"Sure, Harry." She said smiling in victory, the kind of smile he had sought from the beginning.

"So how is your Occlumency coming along, managed to read up on Somniamency? Or do some practice on Occlumency?" She asked curious to his progress.

He scratched the back of his head. "I mostly read up on Occlumency and some exercises it has, haven't really tested them yet, will need more time to make a comprehensive summary of Somniamency, would be best if I were to get a good understanding of Occlumency first before venturing there."

"That would be the best, yes." She replied in agreement. "How is sleeping? going well enough? In any case you don't look like an Inferi anymore."

He managed somewhat of a smile. "I'm not that busy anymore luckily, which gives me enough time to get what I need, it's going well enough."

"Good, and if otherwise you should simply come to me, you slept like a rock last time on my lap, must be because you admire my legs to much." She said in a matter of fact way as she stood up from her seat, leaving his side empty and cold.

"I certainly don't remember falling asleep like that back then." He said.

She motioned for him to stand up with her free hand as she fished for something in her pocket with the other. "I may or may not have positioned you that way. Aha found it!"

Harry slowly rose after her indication and saw that she was holding up a small tape, a rolled up measuring tape to be exact.

"What's that?" He asked, wondering why had something like that on her.

"A measuring tape, silly, we need your lengths and sizes if we are to order and make your robe."

He eyed the tape suspiciously, his sizes? "Erm, weren't we going to do more Occlumency practice?"

"We will, this will only take a minute if you cooperate. Don't worry, Harry, I'll start with the inseam." She said with a wicked gleam in her eyes.

* * *

White.

Harry knew what this meant and made no move to get up just yet. His last memory had been one where he was laying on his bed in his dorm with the book in front of him. He had probably fallen asleep somewhere throughout the reading.

He, it, or whatever it was or should be addressed with was likely waiting for him in that cage of his, waiting for him to get up and move to him so that they could talk about whatever business it had with him tonight.

He pushed himself up on his feet with his hands and looked around to find the single landmark and point of direction in the endless space of whiteness that would guide him.

He spotted the square and black shaped cage, and cabinet to his left and started walking toward it with slight apprehension again, wondering if it had grown in length and physique again like last time.

Harry slowly came closer and felt slight relief to see that it still had the height and physique of a human around the age of thirteen.

"What is it you want to talk about? I was actually hoping to have my nights rest this time." He asked when he was within rage of the smoldering body again.

"Apologies for disturbing you in your sleep." The entity said with the usual childish and hollow voice, not sounding apologetic in the least. "Although you are not really disturbed all that much physically speaking, your body is in a phase of deep sleep and is not suffering in any way by your conscience being here."

"Fine, fine." Harry said sighing. "What is it?'

The entity was silent for a moment as it stared at him with what seemed to be slight accusation. "I wanted to ask; why are you not training anymore, Harry?

"The main reason is that I don't have anything yet to learn from, all the books are practically useless with white blanks throughout all the books when they started being remotely useful." He said shrugging, not even entirely sure why he was explaining his reason for not doing so to him.

"You were having a good start, you were making yourself familiar with the feelings of the newly developed magic you awakened by repeatedly casting the Bone-Breaking spells and have only just experienced the tip of the iceberg, you could easily have continued to familiarize yourself more."

"What do you mean with the magic I developed? There is nothing out of the ordinary, I didn't learn anything." Harry asked immediately, pretty much blocking out everything else the entity had said.

"Come now, Harry, surely you felt the thrill of casting the Breaking spells? Especially after we absorbed the powers of the Dark magic that struck you down only days before."

Harry shook his head in denial, he remembered the night well enough and had merely been happy about his success, about his progress. "I simply felt happy about being stronger, that's all."

"No, Harry, you enjoyed the small amounts of Dark magic each of those Breakers released into you upon completion." The entity explained as he opened and closed his smoking hand in a gesture before dropping his hand back down as his tone turned more gritty and spiteful. "The girl explained this after she saw how it made you feel, how it excited you and hoped to talk you out of it prematurely."

Harry didn't interrupt to ask about the girl, he knew who it was; Daphne.

The entity's voice had lost some of its edge when it continued. "She saw what she feared, that you would show an affinity toward the Dark Arts. Your nights of training at the time and the energy we took from the wraith gave birth to it; gave birth to your connection to the Arts, those who have it gain an increased capacity in learning, understanding, using and feeling anything that has to do with the Dark Arts."

Harry nearly felt his ears twitch at the things the entity was saying, listened in rapt attention as his thoughts began to race, did Daphne also know about this connection he supposedly had or merely recognized something she didn't like? Was he speaking the truth? Harry soon let the worrying questions drop and opted to believe that she either didn't know about it or had a good reason for not telling him yet.

Harry knew that he couldn't ask about the dark energy or wraith as the entity called it; he had already tried to do so in the past. But maybe he could elaborate more on this supposed connection he had.

"You say 'connection' But I recall that Daphne called it 'addiction' or explained it as 'diving in too deep.' Which one are we talking about?" He asked slowly, fearing the answer a bit.

"I think it's a matter of opinion, Harry, she can call it addiction but others; like me might tell you that it's a exhilarating link to a different side of magic, one that can be _felt_, one that can be _experienced_. I call it a_ Gift_"

He wetted his dry lips as the information came in and he felt new questions come up. "But not everyone gets this.. this.. _Gift, _ right? Aurors like Moody also make use of these spells too, and it's as you said before; breaking Curses are only the tip of what is out there, would that be enough to get it? Enough to get this Gift?"

The entity shook his head, black smoke whisking from side to side as he did so. "No not all are favorable enough to be blessed with the Gift, very few actually no matter what kind of spells you were to use over the span of your life, but the awakening has primarily been the work of the wraith, it gave us a sudden influx of Dark magic to take in and became the root which you fed and nurtured with your sessions, allowing it to become what it is now; a seedling."

Harry frowned, so the entity had already known about it and said nothing, withheld it from him! "We have already talked about the wraith, why didn't you say anything at the time!"

"For your own good, Harry, I knew that you would grow reluctant; just like you are right now to continue your practice of the Arts, I thought that over time I could inform you about it without fear of your rejection, but I had taken your feelings of the girl out of my considerations." The entity said with an edge again at the end.

"What are you saying? I decided this on my own, Daphne got nothing to do with it." He said defensively.

"Then why didn't you continue, why are you not satisfied with this news? You don't appear to be elated at the knowledge of having gained the gift while you have actually taken another step in what you wanted, a step towards power, to protect and preserve. Isn't that what you seek?"

"I-I'm just a bit shocked at it all.. that I actually…" He said trailing off, what did he want to say? That he hadn't expected for something like this to happen? That he believed the warnings were just to scare people off, that until now he had found it a bit far-fetched to be true after having seen other people he knew do the same things as him.

Harry left his thoughts for later and added strength to his voice again as he spoke up. "Look I just needed some time to rest, it was all wearing me out too much and if that happened I wouldn't be able to do anything at all with the promise I made to her, Daphne would have me sleep and do absolutely nothing during the Occlumency lessons if I continued."

The smoldering face could show no emotions or facial movements, but Harry could have sworn that he saw an imaginary eyebrow rise in skepticism. "And you truthfully believe that she would remain steadfast in her stance? Despite knowing about your problem and seeing you suffer from your dreams each time she would see you? You might fool others but not me, I am you in all sense but conscience."

"Well she might have.." He said faltering a little at that, Daphne likely wouldn't keep denying him the help he obviously needed from her, she herself had been persistent in giving it in the first place..

"Still it wouldn't have made a difference, right now I have nothing to learn or gain from it or anything else in Hogwarts. I might as well get my rest in preparation."

The entity took a step forward in his detail adorned cage to come face to face with him. "Excuses; you have neglected your practice in favor of more pleasant occupations with her to keep your mind off of the brutal reality that awaits you."

"That isn't true, right now it would only cause needless attention and trouble!"

The entity stared at him with it featureless gaze and empty sockets for several moments before speaking in a dispassionate tone. "She is holding you back, you could do so much more, you just need to commit. You are conflicted, you want to learn more but are subconsciously shying away, knowing that it will displease and worry her."

"Shut up! I'm making progress, the book will be send to us, and I'll be able to make use of it." Harry said glaring at his through the bars of his prison in contempt, wondering somewhere in the back of his head why he felt like he needed to explain and justify his actions toward him.

The smoldering body didn't move, trials of smoke continued to curl and float into the air in their ominous patterns. "That is, _If_ she upholds her promise and lets you."

"She will." He said resolutely holding his empty gaze.

"If you believe it so, and if not, you will know where to find me, I can assure you that I will help you where others only serve to hinder you." It said clasping his hands behind his back in a relaxed pose as Harry stared down on it.

"I don't need your help, Daphne will help me, not you." Harry said heatedly. "What is it that you hold against her anyway?"

"Nothing, she is merely an obstacle that prevents you from progress. It is as I always tell you, Harry; my help comes in many forms. I merely seek the most efficient course."

"And as always, you can keep your help to yourself." Harry said willing himself out of the endless stretch of whiteness, having had enough of the conversation.

White quickly began to darken, signaling that he was returning to the real world and would soon be staring up again at the ceiling of his dorm with the curtains of his bed surrounding him.

It sounded distorted and distant but Harry could still make out the last words the entity said to him as he left. "Stop clinging to your ideals, Harry, such illusions will be the hidden dagger of your demise. There are no heroes...in life, the monsters win."

He opened his eyes and was met with the snoring of Ron coupled with the howling wind that lightly rattled the nearby window as raindrops were flung against it.

* * *

**If you were thinking about it when you heard the stuff about Lord then no, there won't be any; Harry you are descendant from all four founders and now you own Hogwarts along with infinite gold, cheers mate! Potters were Pureblood but nothing major. Harry is distantly related to the Blacks through Dorea Black and Charles Potter as his grandparents but obviously lost some status when James married Muggleborn Lily Evans.**

**The Malfoys are no direct descendants either and can take no Lordship from the House of Black. In any case it won't play much of a role and is merely mentioned here.**

**ulkser: Thanks for letting me know, I agree with your logic but disagree at the same time since Daphne's reaction is partially explained here with the rest being for the distant future. But still I'll see what I can do about it in those early chapters when this story is finished so that I can improve it for the better.**

**Agnew: 'Just a day or two before the Christmas party' On the timeline we are actually about 3 and a half weeks away from the masquerade. (good thing you mentioned it, it's probably a bit hard to keep track of the time that is left) we are pretty much following Harry on a day by day basis now, however a lot of events are planned in those 3-4 weeks so I don't think they will be all that boring either.**

**Sabre96: 'Will Harry get the half blood prince book?' No, it was mostly info on potions and only had a few small spells along with Sectumsempra. Sectum is good but I don't consider it worth the effort to bend things in order to gain it, especially with the book coming in.**

**Wand business; that's an even longer time away.**

**Conversation with entity refers to chapt 8, 9 and 10.**

**Next chapter will likely be the Herbology lesson.**

**Leeeemme know what you think and hope you enjoyed.**


	18. Tracey and Nitwit

**Disclaimer: The Harry Potter Universe and all the characters belong to J.K. Rowling.**

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Hello everyone, it's been a while since a last updated so here is a small summary of the past chapters to help refresh your memory.

15: Daphne learns more about Harry's feelings, tells Harry that Nott bothered her and her sister, they practice Occlumency, Daphne gives Harry the book for info and exercises on Occlumency/Somniamency.

16: Slug Club in which Harry has a chat with Slughorn about asking Daphne formally to the party. They discuss their further mends on the schedule for the party. Harry tells Ron and Hermione of his nightmares, Occlumency lessons as well as Tracey and Daphne joining The Order through his actions, they are disappointed about him keeping silent about it until now. Ron is distrustful about Daphne's actions, Hermione chooses to believe her good intentions.

17: Harry has a conversation with not, with Nott basically saying that Harry shouldn't be near Daphne. Tracey and Daphne's families join The Order. Harry and Daphne discuss the plan to smuggle the book from her parents inside the castle. The entity expresses his displeasure at the lack of Harry's training and informs him of the Gift, which allows a better affinity to the Dark Arts.

* * *

Harry walked through the hallway in a hurried pace after having lost track of time in his readings of Occlumency in the library. He still had some time left before it started but it would probably have been better to arrive before the bulk of the students did. Being one of the instructors and it being their first lesson on the schedule kind of required you to.

His readings weren't the only reason he lost track of time however. He was getting worried about the entity which continued to appear in his dreams. It only have occurred during the times he slept, but saying that it was all merely a dream or illusion by now would be saying that Hagrid could fly on a broom.

At times where he lost control of his emotions he could hear it speak to him, and even manipulate his vision when it really put its effort into it, the first time when he casted his Bone-Breaking Curse successfully being the only but still prime example of this fact. He didn't want to admit it but it had been through his whispers and illusion that Harry had managed to pull it off.

And now only recently where they spoke again, it expressed its dissatisfaction of Harry's lack of practice sessions with Curses, accusing Daphne of being the cause to this.

The entity might be partially true in that sense after Harry noticed how the mention of learning the Dark Arts always seemed to put a damper on her mood but he himself held true to the fact that his lack of practice was mainly because of the shortage of information here in Hogwarts. He had to wait for Daphne's book to arrive before he could continue anything meaningful.

Lastly there had been this.. ability he continued to explain to Harry. The Gift as he called it, which would allow him to learn and understand more of the Dark Arts in a better, quicker and more efficient way. He had according to the entity, learned it when he had absorbed the powers of a dark artifact or wraith as he described it, slammed into him after one of his earlier practice sessions with the Bone-Breaking Curses.

Harry didn't know what this Gift exactly would entail and could only wait and see if any of it was true or just lies made up on the spot to try and motivate him to start practicing again.

He wasn't sure what the entity was, wanted or needed from him. The only thing he was sure of was that he needed to be careful with trusting it.

Harry spotted the back of Neville's figure and slowed to a normal pace after catching up to him, seeing that they were close to their destination.

"Hey, Neville. Ready for some action?" Harry greeted as he took a few breaths, seeing a slightly surprised look on Neville's face at seeing him appear from behind him.

"Oh, hey, Harry. I guess I am, but why are you here? Shouldn't you be inside already with the others?" Neville asked.

"I should be, but I simply lost track of time in the library." Harry said, noticing that the reason sounded strange despite being true.

Neville seemed to agree to his thoughts as he gave a short snort. "You sound like Hermione if you say things like that."

Harry only gave a hum in agreement at the mention of his bookworm friend. Things with Ron and Hermione had improved but conversations longer than a few sentences weren't there yet and was one of the reasons why he had been reading in the library.

A moment passed in which Neville was silent, likely wondering about the situation with his friends before switching topics. Not being one to directly pry into someone's problems.

Harry had come to like that about Neville in the time he recently spend with him during breaks and meals. It allowed for some peace as Neville had a simple understanding of the things going on without needing to ask for details.

"So how do you plan to go about the lesson, Harry? Will you do it like the DA? Show us something and then have it do it ourselves while you watch and correct us?" Neville asked as they approached the large doors of the reserved hall.

"Yes, although the showing part will be longer here." Harry replied as the sound of conversations from the people already inside the hall grew louder with each step they took toward it. "There will be a lot of people so it might be difficult to help everyone separately."

Neville nodded in understanding. "Yeah, I guess that would take up too much time."

"All of us that are instructing will spread out in front of the students so everyone can see what we are doing for the most part. the rest of us will help the students separately." Harry said continuing after his reply.

"Looks like you will be able to put it to practice soon enough, most of the people are probably already here." Neville remarked as they entered the big door into the hall and saw the people assembled inside.

"Looks like it." He replied seeing that most of the people were already present, and were either looking around curiously or talking to each other about various topics.

The hall on the east wing was a big and spacious room, looking much like the Great Hall in structure but having less of its size. There was an impressive fireplace at the far end, and a large metal clock hanging above it with various suits of armor lined up at the sides of the room.

There seemed to be only a few portraits hanging around with their inhabitants curiously looking on at the sudden burst of activity in the otherwise silent and empty hall. Not too far away from the fireplace was a makeshift wooden plateau that stood a few feet in height, likely meant for them to be more easily seen and heard while they gave instructions.

On the stage He saw Daphne finishing up a conversation with the Carrow twins, McLaggen and Zabini. Impatiently motioning for him to come up the stage when she spotted him.

"See you later Neville, duty calls." He said moving away to step onto the plateau with the others, hoping that Neville would find a decent partner to practice with.

"Good luck, don't trip and fall… That would be kind of embarrassing and all." Neville said from behind him to which Harry smiled a bit despite hoping that such a scenario wouldn't occur.

He moved through the chatting students, not coming across Hermione, Ron or anyone else he knew about. They were likely somewhere else in the crowd and would be more easy to spot once he was up the stage.

"What's with the late arrival, Harry? Suddenly got a case of cold feet?" Daphne asked with a hand on her hip when he was within range.

"Good evening to you too. And no, I simply got too immersed in your Occlumency book and lost track of time. Sorry about that." He replied, idly checking the mass of people now that he was up front.

"Well at least you were doing something productively." She replied letting out a breath.

He spotted his friends in the far back of the student mass as soon as she finished her sentence and turned back to her. "Is something wrong then? Do we have a sudden change of plans?"

Daphne idly waved her hand a few times to dismiss his questions. "No nothing like that, we simply could have used your help with Transfiguring this plateau. As you can see, it is quite large and I know that you simply have more magic reserves than I do. It was a pain to pull off even with the five of us."

"Oh, I see. I'm just a big pot of magic reserves for you to use so you won't have to make much of an effort." Harry said raising an eyebrow at her.

"Well, I have to camouflage my imperfections somehow." She replied in a tone that said it was only natural.

He only snorted at that in return, and felt a frown mar his face as he noticed how the students in front of them no longer chatted about normal and random topics but had switched to shooting pointed looks at them coupled with whispers to each other, no doubt because they were seeing confirmation of the rumors regarding their willing partnership.

Harry only sighed at it and quickly got in the mood to start their activities for tonight, hoping that everyone would be distracted by it and started acting a bit more normal.

"Can we start this thing?" He asked after a quick glance to the door, seeing that no more students were coming in.

Daphne in turn glanced at the large clock, before nodding and stepping forward, already catching the attention of some who had been waiting.

"Your attention please everyone." She called out, waiting several moments as the last remnants of chatter and whispers died out.

"Good evening and thank you all for coming without delay. Tonight will be the first scheduled lesson to help you teach the dances that will be held at the party. Said dances will be; the Waltz, slow Foxtrot and Quickstep."

"The first on the roster is the Waltz, being a more slow and elegant dance. I recommend practicing with your date to the party for a more pleasant experience or team up with whoever who is left if you don't have one yet." Daphne said with a calm smile as people chaotically began to talk to their dates or moved about in search for an available partner.

The noise of shuffling feet and chatter died down again after a few minutes, and Harry was relieved to see that they were at an even numbed as everyone had found a partner to practice with. Having somebody left without a partner would have been a bit troublesome and embarrassing for said person.

"Great, we can start now that everyone is ready." Daphne said after things quieted down again. "For now we will not yet practice with our partners, lest we crush each other's toes. Hestia, Blaise and myself will show you the movements , do your best to mimic us. Harry, Flora and Cormac will look as you do so and will help those who need it most."

Knowing his role, Harry stepped down from the plateau to help the students on the floor as Daphne and the others showed the students each step.

He spend some time correcting students after this, seeing that most of them focused on their feet and neglected the rest of their stance, which would be important later on when they started practicing with their partners.

He soon however, came across a bold looking girl with large dark eyes, and long black hair, whom seemed to be completely clueless as to what to do, and constantly seemed to get closer to him by some kind of magnetic force when he helped her.

He ended up spending half of his time with moving away from her while the other half was spend on correcting much of her footwork and stance, even having to move her arms, legs and torso into the correct position himself when instructions alone didn't seem effective.

"Keep holding your arm up." Harry said calmly for the third time, lifting her arm with his hand into the correct position as her arm seemed to drop down whenever she moved her feet.

"Oh, sorry. It's my first time and I guess that I'm kind of nervous with having you instruct me." She said with a giggle.

He gave a noncommittal hum. "Nothing to be nervous about, I'm just another student, but I can always go find one of the Carrow twins or McLaggen if it helps you. No insult taken."

"No, no!" She said quickly to his disappointment, he kind of wanted to go help others by now. "I want you to instruct me Harry, I can call you Harry right?"

He shrugged. "Sure, I don't really care how people address me, as long as it's not an insult. Don't forget to keep moving."

"Fantastic! I'm Romilda Vane, I know we kind of had a rough start but please call me Romilda." She said as she smiled and blinked a few times with her lashes between a few movements.

"Rough start?" Harry asked frowning in puzzlement to her words, momentarily looking away from her movements.

Romilda looked surprised for a moment before continuing. "At the start of the year.. on the train ride, I asked you to come sit with me and my friends after giving you Professor Slughorn's invitation."

He very nearly squinted his eyes at her in thought of the train ride months ago, but quickly remembered his cold refusal to her proposal after she had insulted Luna and Neville.

"Oh yeah. That." Harry said awkwardly not knowing how to respond to that.

"Well, it doesn't really matter anymore now, that's all behind us now." Romilda said cheerfully with the same smile, which only made him feel like distancing himself from her with the way she acted overly familiar in only a matter of minutes.

"So what's the with all the talk about you and Greengrass? Some of them are pretty weird, but now that you're here with me I might as well ask you directly, right?" She asked not a second later, giving an amused look as she talked, finding the rumors disbelieving and even funny.

Harry suppressed a sigh as he realized that she probably was someone who asked all around Hogwarts for these kind of things, serving to spread rumors like these herself. "I don't know how far-fetched they go but Daphne and I are good friends that's for sure."

She looked shocked at his answer and stopped moving again. "Like seriously?"

"Is it that shocking? You saw me moments ago on the stage with her, right? And keep moving, Romilda." He asked skeptically while nudging her leg with his hand to position it, feeling pretty sure that he had seen Romilda as one of the looking and whispering people at the time on the stage.

"I did, but I just thought you know.. that you were acting nice or something.." She replied sounding confused by the simple truth.

"No, that isn't the case, she's a nice person herself." Harry replied.

"Oh, well, I haven't heard all that much about her before now but sometimes I hear that she likes to boast about a lot of things and that she has her own agenda, especially regarding you." Romilda said looking conflicted, before continuing in a softer voice with reddening cheeks. "I was a bit worried about that last part actually."

He gave short laugh at that, poking her arm to remind her of her job. "That's a bit of an exaggeration but actually has some truth in it nonetheless. Surprisingly."

She looked shocked. "What?"

Harry shrugged. "Well I-"

"-That's enough for now, nearly everyone seems to know the basic steps now. We will now show you how to perform these steps with your partner in succession." Daphne called out over the students, causing him to trail off mid-sentence as he saw his chance to escape.

"Looks like I'm needing up front. We'll help you if you need more after trying this." He said hurriedly before moving away to join the others on the stage.

"Will do!" He heard Romilda call out from behind him, sounding more like a promise instead of possibility.

As he ascended the small stairs of the plateau he saw Zabini standing next to Hestia… or Flora, he wasn't entirely sure and McLaggen with the other twin. He himself silently moved next to Daphne in front of the student body.

"We will now demonstrate how to use these steps in conjugation with your partner. Try to observe our postures, movements and how each of us will do it a little differently while keeping the basic steps in it. This is because everyone has different preferences regarding speed, complexity and proximity." She continued explaining before turning to him and holding out her hand for him to take.

"You know what to do." She said with a slight smile as he took her hand and assumed their well-practiced position.

He led her across the stage in a pace they usually shared for everyone to see with the others following suit. For once he was glad that he was used to being the center of attention as he felt that most of the eyes in the room were focused on them. No, they probably were..

"Who was the girl you were helping? Is she a friend?" Daphne asked shortly after they had begun.

"She's Romilda Vane, I spoke to her only once on the train when she gave me a note from Slughorn, which didn't last all that long when she insulted my friends. So I would say no to that question." Harry answered, feeling no outright dislike towards the girl but not feeling all that comfortable in the short amount of time they had spent either.

"Oh, didn't seem like it." Daphne replied sounding thoughtful, before continuing in a slightly accusing tone. "Do you like helpless girls then? You gave her quite a lengthy instruction, she seemed to enjoy your physical instructions very much in particular."

He rolled his eyes at that. "Not really, but I couldn't very well walk away from her when she obviously needed help. She hardly seems capable of moving her arms and legs accordingly at the same time, and was more interested in asking about the rumors."

She let out a sound that told him he just should have done so in her opinion, before grinning a bit again. "I see, I'll forgive you this time then."

"Where would I be if you weren't so forgiving.." Harry replied as he looked past her to look at the others on the stage, a bit curious to see how they were faring themselves.

"You would probably be in some back alley, sniffing obscure potion ingredients for colourful hallucinations of gnomes riding unicorns." Daphne answered with a hint of amusement at the image.

"I see that you have a good amount of confidence in me.." He responded sarcastically as he observed how he others danced, hearing the students softly murmur to each other as he and Daphne danced.

"Say.. shouldn't the others be a bit closer to each other? They're nowhere near as close as we always are." He asked when he noticed that the distance between the other two pairs on the stage was significantly larger than what he had learned from Daphne. They were basically chest to chest while the others weren't even close to doing so.

She glanced to the others before answering nonchalantly. "Hmm? Oh that, no they don't have to. I mean; would you like to do so with a near complete stranger?"

He frowned at her. "No, not really, but that is how you taught me, you never told or showed me otherwise, I thought that was how it needed to be done. You did explain them to me as close proximity dances."

Daphne in response looked away from him to look at the students which were now behind him with a secret smile. "Really? I must have completely forgotten to tell you about that little detail then."

"Well no matter, it's all in the past now, right?" She smoothly continued after he closed his eyed and simply sighed since that was all he could do right now. This girl.. women.. devil.. She would never learn.

"Quite close—Sensual-Practically glued!—Floating." Were a few snippets Harry heard behind him when he concentrated on the murmurs that had been going on in the background causing him to feel a bit self-aware despite his original thoughts of being used to standing in the center of attention.

Daphne on the other hand either didn't seem to hear them or gave it no thought whatsoever as she continued at her leisure. He wasn't sure which case it was this time.

They stopped after several minutes with Daphne disengaging and stepping in front of the students again to address them.

"You've seen us do it, now it is up to you and your partner to do the same. Blaise and Hestia will stay up here to keep demonstrating while the rest of us will help you up close." She said to the people that had fallen silent after they stopped moving.

Harry and the others stepped down after that to move between the people on the floor, giving people who needed it some pointers and instructions. Sometime later however he felt a unfamiliar hand grasp his sleeve.

"Oh, Harry, could you show me the steps one more time?" He heard the voice of Romilda sweetly ask him, as he had unknowingly passed her in his scouting between the students.

"Uh, yeah, I could." He said a bit reluctantly, already foreseeing another long instruction session with her.

"Maybe it would help if you danced with me and guided me through each of them, I'm sure that Alex wouldn't mind if we did that for a few minutes, right Alex?" Romilda asked hurriedly.

"I guess-" The blond and spikey haired boy replied whom Harry assumed to be either her date or practice partner.

"-Fantastic!" Romilda replied immediately with a smile, hardly giving him the time to answer her in time. "Now, Harry please hold my-"

"Is something wrong?" A voice whom he quickly recognized as Daphne's smoothly asked as she came into view closely beside him with her arms crossed just as Romilda was about to take positions with him.

"Oh-uh, nothing much. Harry was just about to guide me through the steps.." Romilda answered with an unsteady start as she looked at Daphne's smile which wasn't very natural.. scary even.

Daphne raised an eyebrow in response. "And what about your partner? We are here to help the two of you together, not each of you separately."

"It's fine with me, I mean I'll wait if it's only for a few minutes.." The boy named Alex said passively.

"Nonsense, we'll have this solved in a blink." Daphne said ignoring both of their protests, mostly Romilda's.

"Cormac!" She suddenly shouted to which Romilda jumped in shock after which each of them waited a few seconds in anticipation of some kind of response or reaction.

"Geez no need to shout like that, I wasn't that far away, what is it 'boss'?" McLaggen complained after emerged behind a few practicing students.

Said boss ignored his remark and continued now that he had come. "Vane is having some trouble, please help her out and replace her partner for a minute if the need arises."

McLaggen gave a smile which he probably deemed charming and inviting as he looked at the reasonably attractive witch in front of him. "Of course."

Romilda however pushed through with one last effort. "I, uh, would prefer if Harry were to-"

"-_Harry_." Daphne interjected a bit prickly at the use of his first name. "Gave you instruction for a prolonged period of time last time around, which obviously didn't help you much, as such we will try with a different instructor and see if improvements will be made that way. It could be that Harry's instruction simply weren't useful to you. Good luck to the three of you."

She didn't wait for their answer, grabbed his arm and moved away from them with a swish of her hair into a different direction.

"Thanks.. I guess.. Although you could have handled that a bit more delicately." Harry said a few seconds later as he walked along with her.

Daphne shrugged uncaringly. "Probably, but she had been acting bad from the start to keep your attention. Check up on her again in a few minutes and you'll see she is perfectly capable of doing it all. Especially with a leering Cormac around."

"Oh. Yeah, that might have been the case.." He said slowly before wondering why she had done so in the first place. "But why would she want to do that?"

Daphne gave him a wry look. "Because you're an idiot at times, Harry."

"What? Why?" He asked surprised at the sudden turn.

"Well, people seem to be doing good but I'll have another look around, try not to get yourself into trouble again, Harry." She said with a small grin, ignoring his questions completely before moving away again between the students.

He shook his head before mimicking her action by looking around for people who needed help, grumbling about trouble always finding him.

Shortly after he found Ron and Hermione. He gave Ron some pointers and tips on how to improve his movements after seeing that he was having a few simple problems. Much of an conversation didn't happen again but it wasn't hostile or anything. Just neutral, although Ron looked like he wanted to say something, likely about his dance with Daphne..

After some time of helping a few people He looked back to the plateau to see Cormac and one of the Carrow twins slowly performing the dance for people to see, likely having switched with Zabini and the twin he had been dancing with to give them some rest.

Harry curiously looked between the practicing students and true to Daphne's words; saw Romilda performing the dance without trouble with Alex, however she didn't look very chipper anymore.. He also doubted that she genuinely learned from McLaggen and simply knew it all along like Daphne had said.

"Trying to spot Daphne's bottom from a distance Potter?" He heard a female voice call out jokingly from behind him, causing his face to lightly heat up before he turned his head to the source of the remark.

"Davis?.. And Neville?" He asked surprised to see the two of them together as partners.

"Hey, Harry, we were one of the few people who came without a predetermined partner so.. yeah. I guess it kind of looks odd." Neville explained after seeing his surprised expression while Davis gave a wave as greeting on her part.

Harry shook his head. "Not at all, I just wasn't expecting it that much. How are you guys doing? Got any problems?"

"No, don't really think so but we probably need the other lessons that are coming up, but it seems like other people here will also be in need of those." Neville said with a slight shrug.

"Some people here stomp around like three hundred year old Ents.. I'm glad that I am with Neville, I'll have you know that I have yet to injure my feet with him" Davis pointed out, sounding satisfied.

He couldn't help but agree with both of them, giving a small smile. "Yeah it mostly is a simple matter of practice to get it down, so it should be fine eventually."

"Yeah, but enough of that, Potter we are going to have a chat that has been long overdue. Neville could you please give Potter and me a private moment?" Davis asked sounding apologetic.

"Yeah sure, I was getting tired anyway, I'll have a seat over there and take a break with some of the others." Neville said easily before walking away.

Davis extended her hand to him shortly afterwards, which he was quick to grasp and shake.

"Tracey Davis, just call me Tracey since you're a good friend of Daphne."

"Harry Potter, just call me Harry."

Davis smiled pleasantly and changed the grasp on their hands. "Come, Harry, _instruct_ me for a bit, or we'll look like awkward Ents ourselves."

"Well, I shouldn't be doing that when you already know-"

"-Learn the rules, break the rules, make up new rules, break the new rules and so forth. Come on, Daphne won't scold you for it." Tracey airily interjected, moving along with him when he agreed and started moving.

"So our late introductions aside, what did you want to talk about?" He asked curiously.

Tracey's face adopted a serious look before speaking in a tone that mirrored her facial expression. "Daphne's bottom obviously, you never answered me, have you found it yet?"

Harry nearly stumbled at the question that stood in complete contrast to her tone but recovered in time. "The hell? No.. No, I didn't.. _find her bottom_."

"You didn't?" Tracey asked faking surprise before continuing with a sly grin creeping onto her face. "Well maybe not visually but I daresay you nearly did so physically during your dance right?"

"What is it with people and the way we dance?!" Harry exclaimed in confusion, knowing that this was going to go all around Hogwarts again. "I wasn't anywhere near to doing that!"

"Maybe that's just how it feels like to you but we were seeing things differently with the way you two moved in such proximity, to be frank it looked quite sensual, have you two always been doing it like that?"

"..Yeah, pretty much." Harry replied more in his own thoughts than in the conversation. Did it really look like that? He honestly couldn't even remember where his hand had been after all the times he had practiced with her. He was pretty sure it hadn't been that far down but might not have been all that safe either..

Curse her for using his cluelessness in the subject to teach him things like that. Was her goal in life to embarrass him or something?

He came back into the conversation when a thought hit him.

"My hand isn't too low now, right? or my proximity? I don't want to give any wrong impressions.. or something." He asked suddenly checking all aspects of his position with her, he didn't want to make her uncomfortable with him.

She shook her head with an amused expression to his relief. "No you did it all safely from the beginning. I guess it's a natural thing you do with Daphne. Which I find quite endearing now."

"Sure.. now did you really have something to talk about or do you merely want to tease me about the way we dance." Harry asked getting confused about the way he subconsciously seemed to adjust to everyone.

"Sorry, sorry, I'll get serious now. It's just that I'm withholding from teasing Daphne too much, so you're paying double for that." Tracey said before turning serious again, hopefully for real this time.

"No I wanted to thank you in person, you know, for what you did with The.. Order thing. You helped me and Daphne out.. a lot." She continued in a grateful tone, speaking softer during the second half for some extra secrecy.

Harry smiled, glad that yet again he had been able to help them and seeing things rebound in a positive way. "You're welcome."

She smiled at his simple response. "I also received a letter from my parents, much like Daphne had, describing in rough and vague lines that Dumbledore visited them to discuss various things. The letter hardly contained more than that in case it would be intercepted. We will have to wait until the holidays to hear It from them directly if we want to know more."

He nodded in understanding. "I myself might come to know a thing or two before then. Which I'll let you and Daphne know of if and when I do."

"Thanks, Harry." Tracey said nodding in the same manner he had done as she stopped moving. "Well, it's been great talking to you Harry, but I think Neville has fully recovered by now. See you around!" She said cheerfully before moving away in a hurried pace to find Neville at the side lines.

He continued to help people around him after this, even coming across Cho Chang at some point but didn't linger for long as things were awkward to say the least..

He had just finished helping another pair with their postures when he heard Daphne speak up again to address them all. "Your attention again please everyone!"

"The time for our lesson has come to an end, we will continue again in a few days time with the same dance to refresh your memory and improve your movements. I thank all of you for your participation and cooperation." She finished with a slight inclination of her head to all of them.

People left in masses after this, talking among themselves about how the lesson went, likely looking forward to the next lesson if their positivity was anything to go by from.

Harry stayed behind with Daphne and the others to help Untransfigure the stage and rearrange everything back to its original state in the hall, levitating the large desks back to the place where they originally stood and cleaning up dirty footsteps from people who had evidently been outside beforehand. Leaving the room like they found it, would probably be appreciated by the portraits and teachers.

"I think that was the last of it." He said after vanishing the last remaining footstep in sight with a cleaning spell.

"Probably, and if it isn't, then it won't be my problem. See you guys later." Zabini said a bit impatiently before turning around to leave through the large door. Likely not used to nor happy with cleaning up other people's mess.

"He probably meant to say that tonight went very well-" One of the Carrow twins began in a calm voice.

"-And that you did a good job on leading and organizing this evening." The other twin easily finished, either Hestia or Flora.

"Yeah, it did go pretty well. It's a good thing that most of us already knew how to dance. It wouldn't have worked out if there had been less of us." Daphne said giving a small shrug as she grinned, a surprisingly modest reaction, Harry thought idly.

McLaggen grinned at that while the twins nodded simultaneously, which made him wonder whether these things were from practice or just natural behavior from both of them.

"We will take our leave now." One of the twins said.

"Have a good evening." They said as one before taking off in the same direction Zabini went moments before.

"Well." McLaggen began in thought for a moment. "Most of the things have already been said so.. Yeah we did good, don't forget to call on me again next time if some special lady needs a bit of help from me. That Vane girl sure caught on quickly after I gave her a few _guided_ instructions." McLaggen said as he wiggled his eyebrows at him with an cocky smile.

Harry didn't give much of an reaction to the look. Was that supposed to make him jealous? McLaggen probably didn't realize that Romilda learned it so _quickly_ because she wanted to get rid of him. But then again, he himself also hadn't noticed that she had been acting in the first place..

"I'm sure she did." Daphne said with a friendly smile which Harry _almost_ believed.

"Heh." Was al McLaggen replied with, gaining an satisfied look before turning around and walking away in an confident stroll. "Later."

Harry turned to Daphne with a disbelieving sigh. "Quite the unique personalities we have around here don't we?"

"But they're nothing compared to me right?" She asked casually as if it was completely normal to ask such a thing, grinning a bit as she did so.

"Yes, That's for sure." He said raising an eyebrow questioningly. "Whether or not that is a good thing is debatable however."

Daphne huffed indignantly in response, pretending to be insulted as she crossing her arms. "It's a good thing obviously. I know that you would miss me now that you know of my divine existence. Just admit it."

He quietly took a moment to look at the girl whose purpose seemingly was to make his life more pleasant and troublesome at the same time before answering. "..Yeah. I would." Harry said leaving sarcastic and joking remarks behind for a honest one, smiling when he saw that she got a bit of colour on her surprised face from the answer she didn't expect.

"Heh, of course you would." She replied raising her chin and puffing her chest out again. "But I guess that it can't be helped, some people really are hopeless." She continued with a big grin, pacing away a bit to try and hide her face, causing him to question who really was hopeless here as he withheld a bit of laughter.

"I met your friend Tracey." He said after she turned back to him. "Quickly noticed that she too has a bit of an unique personality."

"Yeah, I saw you two near the end of the lesson." Daphne said letting out a sound that told him she knew all about Tracey's personality. "So what was that all about, Harry? You introduce me to your friend but I don't get to introduce mine?"

Harry gave a light shrug. "I just happened to come across her, Tracey then pulled me away for a moment so that she could thank me personally."

"Yes, I already assumed it to be for a reason like that." She said giving a nod. "Although I'll tell you beforehand that you should just come tell me when Tracey goes too far with her teasing, she can take it a bit far at times. I'll make sure she keeps it to a minimum." Daphne finished with a wink.

"My first time wasn't so bad tonight, but I'll keep your protection in mind." He said running a hand through his hair as he gave a light laugh. "But we should probably head back to our dorms now, it's getting late and I don't have my Cloak with me." He continued after catching a glimpse of the pointers on the large clock in the room.

"Hm? Oh yeah, you're right, we probably should.." Daphne reluctantly agreed after turning her head to look at the clock herself, still being able to clearly see it with the help of the candles that had begun to illuminate the room as it had gone dark outside.

The walk to the end of the room was silent with Daphne being unusually quiet until they stopped at the door where they needed to split up, since their common rooms were on opposite sides from each other.

"Well. I'll see you soon at Herbology again, good night." He said with a smile.

Daphne gave a thin smile. "Yeah.. good night."

Harry briefly got the feeling that she wanted to say something, but he probably imagined it. Daphne wasn't one to stay silent about things she had to say. With that in he thought he gave a wave before turning around and moving toward his common room.

"Uhm, Harry.. a moment?" He heard Daphne call out from behind him, had she wanted to ask him something after all? He should've listened to his gut..

He turned around and saw her with one arm outstretched to him, as if she had wanted to grasp him in case he hadn't heard her. On her face was an expression he could only describe as nervous despite never if hardly having seen it before on her pretty features.

"What's wrong?" He asked suddenly feeling a strange atmosphere around them and not being used to seeing her like this.

"Well, you see.." She began dropping her arm before trailing off into silence as she frowned and bit her lip.

He waited for a moment before asking. "Uh, yeah? See what?"

"Well w-we have been friends for some time now, and I noticed that.. that we like to spend some time with each other.." Daphne managed to get out, looking like she was having a case of cold-feet herself.

He silently nodded and wondered whether or not he should have said something as she frowned harder in response to his silence.

"W-we've been together a lot since the beginning of our year, a-and are quite comfortable with each other.. thus I thought that we should maybe try to.. to.. you know. Do something about it."

"Do something about it…?" Harry repeated in confusion. He was pretty sure he had been lost before in conversations with Hermione but he wasn't even getting the vaguest idea of what this was about.

"Yes, I believe that to be the most sensible step to undertake next." She continued nodding stiffly.

"Yeah, sure..." Was all Harry said while he actually wanted to throw his hands up and ask what in Merlin's name she was talking about but refrained from doing so, since she seemed to have enough trouble with this as it stood.

"I've come to believe that we.. that I… " Daphne slowly said as her hands balled into fists at her sides with her cheeks going red, before suddenly thrusting her finger up to point at him. "T-that you should tell me something right now!"

"Me?!" He couldn't help but exclaim with an incredulous look. "What am I supposed to say?"

"What you are supposed to say! You are the guy here!" She said as if it was obvious, sounding more confident again now that the task was apparently up for him to do. To him however, it wasn't.

"What does me being guy have to do with anything?" Harry asked a frown marring his face.

"Everything!" Daphne declared, explaining little.

"I don't even know what you're going on about!" He finally cried out.

"Fine! Then go think about it! See you later, Harry! Good night!" She suddenly shouted in frustration of not being able to convey whatever she had meant to say as she stormed off in the opposite direction, leaving him behind in confusion.

"Daphne!" He called after her but was met with silence as she sped around the corner and disappeared.

….

He threw his hands up, feeling that it was all he could do right now.

"Nitwit." One of the nearby portraits sniffed in a condescending voice.

* * *

**Yes, yes I'm alive and well. I've been busy with finishing up my internship and final school year these past 4/5 weeks. (That and I needed a break..)**

**Saying that my update times will be consistent would simply be a lie since I either work constantly or hardly at all on writing chapters. That is just how my muse works sadly..**

**I had intended to include the Herbology lesson in this chapter but these chapters always end up longer than I originally planned.. Oh well, I'm by no means a perfect writer. At least I'm able to publish this with the next one coming up in a week or so.**

**Next chapter will (obviously) be the Herbology lesson in any case. For sure this time. Maybe some crude truth-serum fumes will help Daphne? Or Harry? Or maybe no one at all?**

**Guest 17 may: I can agree on multiple points you mentioned, I'll try watch the 90's soap opera star dialogue x) There is however, more in the chapter as multiple moments in it will serve for developments in the future, some soon, some further away. But those are easy to overlook if you don't know about them.**

**I thank every else too for sharing their thoughts and expressing their desire for an update, can't say that it didn't help me start earlier.**

**And as always; Lemme know what you think of this chapter.**

**References:**

**a dark artifact or wraith as he described it, slammed into him after one of his earlier practice sessions with the Bone-Breaking Curses: reference to chapter 7**

**Lastly there had been this.. ability he continued to explain to Harry. The Gift as he called it: reference to chapter 17**


	19. Explanation and Answer

**Disclaimer: The Harry Potter Universe and all the characters belong to J.K. Rowling.**

* * *

Harry walked on crunchy grass as he Ron, Hermione, Neville and the other Gryffindors came close to the Herbology greenhouse through the biting cold of the weather outside. Things with Ron and Hermione had become pleasant again during the last few days as they had become friendly with him again. He did make sure however, that Neville didn´t shy away from sitting with them during the breaks. He considered Neville to be a good friend and didn´t want him to think otherwise by suddenly leaving him hanging now that he was on good terms again with Ron and Hermione.

He had also thought about what Daphne had said to him after their supplementary lesson, and could only imagine a handful of possibilities as to what she might have meant or tried to talk about, now that he had gotten the time to think over her words again. Nearly all of those possibilities however, were scratched as he thought them to be either too incredulous, absurd or disbelieving.

A few of those options entailed her asking him to go do something together as she had rambled about them enjoying the time they spend together, but he soon scratched away as she should have no problem with asking something like that, which led him to believe that it was about something more..

More radical ideas were that Slughorn might have taken Daphne aside and told her about the conversation they had during the recent Slug Club. Telling her that he was trying to formally ask her out to the party, after which she might have gotten tired of waiting and tried to put things into motion. But Harry wasn´t sure about this one either, he had trouble seeing Slughorn do that after wanting to keep it a secret between them, and she couldn't know about it otherwise.

The last possibility was that she might have tried to ask him out on a date or something along those lines, but he too scrapped this one, she couldn´t possibly have wanted to, someone like her with him? Maybe if he consisted more of Harry Potter the hero instead of just Harry.. but that wasn't the case.

He came out of his looping thoughts when the warm and moist air of the greenhouse hit him in the face, after he and the other Gryffindors came through the glass door.

As usual the Slytherins were already inside, talking quietly to each other as they waited for Professor Sprout to arrive and begin the lesson. Harry was quick to pick up the calculating gaze Nott shot at him, causing him to lightly glare back as he was reminded of their previous exchange.

Nott probably knew about their continued partnership in the supplementary lessons by now, and Harry should probably ask Daphne about whether or not he bothered her again.

"Attention please everyone, class will be starting." Professor Sprout called out as she entered the greenhouse, ending chatter in the class and pulling his attention away from Nott.

"Well now, we have all been working hard to keep the Dragon's Bane healthy and growing for some time now, and I'm happy to announce that they are nearing their maturity as they have entered their final stage of growth, which is indicated by their midnight blue petals, whose have always been a simple lilac before now." Professor Sprout explained, jumping right into it and indicating the motionless plants behind her.

"You undoubtedly, or should at least _should_ remember from the essay assignment I gave you all what that means. Nonetheless I'll explain it again for those that aren't fully aware of what that involves anymore."

"It means that the plant will eject the infamous fumes from its core once it notices that a threat is near, and said threat will be us of course. The smog can act as a crude Truth-serum and serves to make you speak your mind more easily, mostly about things you _want_ to say but normally restrain yourself from, different from the Truth-serum itself where you are forced to answer _anything_." Sprout elaborated as she put on her weathered gloves. "Naturally this can cause some embarrassing situations, if treated with carelessness."

"You are probably wondering by now; how are these normally harvested then? Well, simply by making sure that you don't get too much of the fumes in your system, the effect isn't instantaneous, for it needs to accumulate in your body before it starts to affect you, this threshold is different for everyone."

"Our purpose today lies with the flower it possesses, for the petals of the flower serve to store the essence of the Dragon's Bane in a liquid form. The problem however is that for the preparation of Truth-serum the petals need to be small in size and high in concentration. Using bigger and less concentrated leaves results in a flawed or altogether failed serum."

"It is up to us to carefully pluck out the largest leaves so that more of the essence will be stored inside the smaller leaves. Sounds easy right? Well it isn't, the Dragon's Bane will make use of its vines to ward us off while exhaling the smog which serves to distract and daze you as time goes on."

"Not only that but the leaves should be ripped off as a whole to cause the plant less distress. More distress is a bigger threat and thus more fumes. Yes, Miss. Granger?" Professor Sprout asked after seeing Hermione's raised hand.

"How are we supposed to ward of the effects then? The smog will be released regardless of our performance, right? Only in lesser amounts if we do well."

"We have no means available to ward the effects off. You can only take a break when you feel like it's starting to build up too much by simply stepping away from it and taking a breather outside, the effect should dissipate quickly this way."

Hermione hand rose up again with an eager expression.

"And no, Miss Granger; a Bubble-head Charm won't work here, wizards and witches have noticed that the fumes of the plant have in recent years adapted to the use of the Charm and now pass right through it."

Hermione's hand drooped down in disappointment.

"Now." Sprout said clapping her gloved hands together. "Enough talking, go to your partners and get started."

They all spread out to their to find their partners while Harry approached Daphne at their table, feeling a bit cautious. He saw that she had her hairstyle is a ponytail again to keep most of it out of her neck, allowing it to be a bit less hot for her in the greenhouse.

"Hey, Harry." Daphne simply greeted not sounding to be frustrated anymore, and he guessed or at least hoped that the last few days helped dissipate it.

"Hey." He greeted back before a silence quickly set in as they prepared themselves and their workspace for the upcoming task.

"So, uhm, has Nott bothered you again in the recent days or so?" He asked thinking that he might as well ask her right now, instead of prolonging the silence.

"He hasn't." Daphne replied simply before narrowing her eyes at him. "Didn't I promise you that I would come tell you otherwise, why do you ask regardless?"

He tugged his hands inside the thick and stiff dragonhide gloves as he replied. "Well, you were right about your premonition, he came to me a few days after you told me about it."

Her face now started to frown. "Oh, what did he say? And why are you telling me this now? It's been quite a while ago if it happened a few days after I told you."

"Sorry, I don't really have a good excuse.. I forgot to tell you about it during our practice lesson and even more so after the other things that followed. I only just remembered." He confessed honestly.

She sighed in response, her frown slides off her features. "You need to tell things like this more readily if you ask the same of me, Harry. So, what kind of word vomit did he spew this time?"

"Well, for one it's true that he knows about us going to the party. Other than that he told me that I should withdraw, since it would put you in danger. That was pretty much it really." He said casting a glance at Nott and his two other partners; Goyle and Lavender to see that they had started working.

Daphne made a sound of acknowledgement as she slid on her thin lizardhide gloves, a less protective but more easily to maneuver your fingers in glove. "Nothing we didn't already discuss, but be sure to let me know earlier next time. You wouldn't like it if I did the same to you, right?"

"No, I wouldn't." Harry said apologetically, feeling a bit scolded. These things were important to talk about. He should have remembered earlier.

"Let's get started, the others are about to begin , we shouldn't fall behind." She said to which he nodded.

The plant of front of them; the Dragon's Bane they had been raising for the past weeks stood silently in its pot with the core still looking like some sort of coconut. The flower on top of the core looked much like a dark sunflower with the petals increasing in size with each row of leaflets spreading around it. He found the petals quite pretty, having changed from a simple lilac to a dark blue with a glimmering sheen covering each leaflet.

Other things about the plant had become less alluring however, such as the vines that had become thicker and more barbed, they seemed to be less in numbers as smaller ones seemed to have died off but apparently only made room for the remaining two vines to grow bigger and stronger.

He was probably going to have to devote his whole strength and attention to those again, even more so than before.

"Ready?" Harry asked his partner as he raising his thickly gloved hands.

She nodded and he turned back to the plant, seeing that one of the vines had come up in some sort of warning, as if sensing their approach.

Deciding to make the first move, he swiftly grabbed the nearest vine before it could strike him and wrapped the barbed appendage around his gloved fist to give the long appendage less room to move in, as well as securing a tight grip.

The second vine quickly shot out to attack him however, and he instinctively raised his arm in front of him to avoid the barbs from cutting into his face.

Using his arm wasn't all that pleasing either however, as the barbs sank and cut into the skin his dragonhide gloves didn't cover. He stopped himself from making any sound and quickly used what space he had left in his other hand to pry the hooks loose before securing it too, in a tight grip.

"Are you okay over there? Can't I help?" Daphne asked with concern in her voice as she saw him struggle with the dangerous appendages.

"No. Your Lizardskin gloves are too thin, and someone needs to remove the petals." He said taking a breather while casting a quick glance at his arm to see that he didn't bleed all that much. "I'll get something for this later, just continue for now."

She looked ready to argue but complied after he gave her a look that said he didn't want to go through any more attempts of catching the vines than necessary.

Daphne moved her hand close to one of the largest leaves on the flower. The plant in question was likely seeing where this was going as a cloud of silvery particles burst out from its center into their faces.

Harry got half of it and didn't make much of an effort to stop breathing, it was all around them and he needed a lot of oxygen If he was to hold the strong vines down for their safety.

He briefly got the urge to compliment Daphne on her hairstyle and how it complimented her features but just as easily brushed it away. This wasn't an appropriate time to say such things. They needed to focus on the matter at hand here.

Daphne however didn't give much of an reaction and seemed out of it for a second before blinking and gaining some colour on her cheeks.

"I, uh. I'm continuing now."

She closed in on the flower again and was quick to rip the petal off she had previously targeted. It didn't go very well however as only half came off, causing the two vines beneath him to struggle with renewed strength, forcing him to practically press his body weight on top of it to keep it immobilized.

"I-I got it." He said after a moment of wrestling with the distressed plant.

"Let's try to finish this as quick as we can." She said in a breath or two as her breathing had gotten a bit heavier, looking like she herself was fighting the vines instead of him.

Daphne leaned over the plant again and removed the remaining half of the petal before ripping off another one with a now shaking hand.

More fumes were ejected while the vines underneath him protested again.

"Try to remove them as a whole, Daphne. I'm no pro wrestler." He said with a bead of sweat running down his forehead after it settled down again.

Her response was a light giggle that slowly trailed off.

He in return, gave her a questioning look as to why she let out such unfamiliar reaction during the abhorrent task they were doing. "Are you okay? Do you need to step outside for a moment or something?"

"Huh?" She asked dazedly, looking at him with a bit of an glaze in her eyes for a moment before it faded.

"I asked whether or not you needed a break?" Harry repeated, taking a quick look around to see that a few others had decided to take a break during their progress.

"I.. I don't need such a thing, I'm completely fine, I promised Tracey that I would be." Daphne said brushing some hair out of her face that had come loose from her bundle of hair. "T-there isn't anything wrong with you either right?" She asked after briefly stumbling over her words.

"True, but like the Professor said; it's different for everyone." He said carefully so he didn't insult her pride.

"Exactly, now enough talk. I'll finish this in one go and be done with it." She said making him doubt whether or not she was really listening or understanding what he was saying as she took a deep breath of the fume-filled air around them before bending over the flower again to remove an oversized petal.

"Daphne, I think that we should probably-" He began again only to interrupt himself with a grunt as the vines struggled in his grip again when she removed a petal, and another, followed by another.

The result was a thick stream of silvery smog spewing forth from the plant which took several seconds to dissipate before the air around them was a bit normal again.

He felt himself slump down for a second almost as if he was about to fall into a deep sleep before jumping out of it with a scare as he remembered that he was supposed to restrain the vines.

He let felt a sense of relief when he found that his hold had remained strong enough, and that they were still in his hands.

"Please don't rush things like that again, Daphne. That isn't like you." He said tiredly, releasing the vines when he noticed that they were now completely slack. "At least we finished quickly again.." He continued, seeing that the Dragon's Bane had lost most of its larger petals in that short picking burst.

"Daphne?" He asked turning to look at her after receiving no answer.

It had been a bit difficult to see at first with all the fumes around but she had apparently sank to the floor as she now sat on her rear. Her arms were hanging limply at her sides with the same glazed look in her eyes as before.

"Hey! Daphne!" He called out in concern, quickly kneeling before her and shaking her by the shoulders, trying to make her snap out of it like she did before, she only stared ahead dazedly.

"It's no surprise, Mr. Potter." Professor Sprout said as she appeared beside him and inspected Daphne's face for a moment. "I saw the amount of smog you two produced, don't worry about Miss. Greengrass, it's only temporary. Take your partner outside for some fresh air so that the affect will wear off, although you might want to consider leaving her alone after you bring her outside, she could say all kinds of things."

"Yeah, will do." Harry said taking off his thick gloves, still doubting whether or not it would wear off that easily in the state she seemed to be in.

Sprout nodded and made a sound of annoyance when Lavender gave a shout of pain further in the back of the room, causing her to turn away from Harry and move toward them. "Damnit! Nott, Goyle keep those vines under control! You're the only three man team here and no better off than the rest!"

Harry turned back to Daphne and saw that she was now staring up at him with a faraway look, her face was completely relaxed, which he found quite strange to see, most of the times she either had some hint of either annoyance or smugness left on her face.

"Uhm, can you stand? Or even understand me?" He asked unsure about her state of confusion.

A sloppy grin broke loose on her face before she replied in a voice that sounded oddly cheerful and slightly slurred. "I like sweets, Haaarry.. Honeydukes.. Sugar Quills."

Taking her answer as a no and deciding that Daphne had spent more than enough time in the greenhouse, he grabbed her arm and put it over his neck while grabbing her side with his other arm, before carefully lifted them up to a standing position.

She seemed capable of supporting most of her own weight but still leaned heavily against him in her daze as he walked them through the greenhouse. Luckily mostly unnoticed as the others were either busy with their own task at hand or looking a bit dazed themselves.

"I like dancing with you, Harry.. I love it when you hold me. You should do it more often." Daphne dreamily said as she blinked, sounding to be more alert as her slur was already gone.

He gave a nervous laugh as he felt his face warm up from more than just the temperature in the greenhouse and was relieved when they stepped outside into the cold outside air. "I also like dancing with you, Daphne."

Harry moved them to one of the corners that was a bit further away in case someone else also decided to take a break. Daphne probably didn't want anyone to hear her disoriented ramblings.

"I like your smell.." She said with a sigh while nestling her head in the crook of his neck, taking a deep breath through her nose as if to emphasize her words. "Do you also like mine? I always try to keep myself clean.."

"I- I like the way you smell too." Harry replied reassuringly, seeing that she was getting a more focused look now that she was outside.

"Have you thought about it..?" She asked softly, her eyes finding his.

He didn't need to ask, he knew what she was referring to and he hoped that he wouldn't frustrate her again with his answer.

"I have, but so far I haven't managed to come up with an answer as to what you might have meant. Sorry." He said tentatively, carefully letting her lean against the wall of glass behind her before taking a step back.

"Just rest here for a bit, okay? You'll feel better in a moment. I should probably give you some privacy, I'll be inside if you're ready again." He finished softly as he turned around and started heading back.

He was halted however, when her thinly gloved hand grabbed his naked one in a tight grip.

"Wait. Don't go."

He turned back to her and saw that she seemed to be thinking clearly again for the most part with only a few traces of the glaze lingering in her eyes. Eyes that now looked hard and vulnerable at the same time.

"Yes?" He asked a bit uncertainly at what would come next.

"I-I'll tell you." She began stumbled lightly before closing her eyes and taking a shivering breath.

Daphne opened her eyes again and he saw only determination in her expression as the grip of her thinly gloved hand on his increased.

"I like you, Harry. In more than just a friendly way."

Harry didn't gape at her, he didn't breathe, he didn't blink, and he didn't even move. His whole body probably froze up right then and there, becoming one with the cold air around them. For a moment he had been sure that his heart too, had completely stopped working, before it started beating again with a speed that was increased by tenfold of what it was moments ago.

He didn't know what it looked like on the outside but he managed to smile weakly at her steely expression. "Daphne, you are not yourself right now, the amount of smog in your body is just making you say things. You should rest-"

Daphne didn't wait for him to finish, grabbed the hem of his robes and yanked him close to her face. A face he could only describe as beautifully angry. "-The smog would only cause me to be more honest about my feelings, Harry, which it just did. Besides, I have more than just words to show, unlike you!" She hissed at him.

"I-hmpf!" Once again he didn't get to finish his sentence, as Daphne tightly held on to his clothes and closed the remaining distance. Kissing him on the lips.

It probably only lasted for a second ,maybe less, or maybe more, he couldn't tell, time was acting weird. He only stared with his eyes wide open in surprise as he felt her lips on his.

They weren't wet and salty, like his first kiss was but soft and warm. In the background he heard the sound of her leather gloves creaking at the force of her grip on his robes, and It might have been only his imagination but he could've swore that he also heard the smallest of sounds escape from her throat when she separated from him.

"Don't talk to me again until you have a decent explanation to go with your answer, Harry. No matter which one it is."

With that she released his robes and walked away, leaving him to stare at the reflection of his shocked face in the glass, which only stared back at him with equal stupidity.

He now knew which of his possibilities had been right..

* * *

Harry didn't know how long he had remained standing there, Daphne either told the Professor that he had gotten unwell or used some other excuse to explain his sudden absence. Sometime later the other students emerged from the greenhouse and started heading toward their respective common rooms. It was only then that he came into motion again and joined his friends.

They asked him where he had gone to but he didn't give much of an answer. He didn't even know if he gave them an answer at all. He had been completely absorbed in his own thoughts and emotions, feeling confused, happy, shocked..

He confined himself to his bed, he didn't talk, didn't read, and didn't make any homework. He only thought about everything. Everything being his answer and explanation. He didn't get a good night's rest either that night, the nightmares made themselves known again which didn't help his already muddled thoughts.

That had been yesterday and he now sat with Ron in front of a game of chess, he wasn't paying any attention to the game however. The pieces on the board only seemed to resemble the intricate web of possible maneuvers and choices he himself now had to make and solve, with Ron resembling the difficulty of it all.

"Did you have a fight with Greengrass or something?" Ron asked suddenly, taking his pawn.

Harry felt a sting of guilt at the name and looked up warily, wondering whether or not this was going to end up well, because most of the times it didn't when Daphne's name was involved in a conversation with Ron.

"..Why do you ask?" Harry asked slowly, knocking down a random enemy pawn.

"Because you are usually off to one of those meetings by now, or Occlumency lessons or whatever it is you two have these days." He answered, making a vague gesture with his hand.

Harry let out a deep sigh. "Not really.. I think.. No, it's.. Let's just leave it at a fight. Easier for both of us."

Ron grunted. "Sure, so did you say something stupid? That's okay you know, I do that with Hermione all the time. Not intentionally of course, but still. It just needs some time to simmer down."

"Heh, I guess it's a mixture of having said stupid things and having left things unsaid." He said with a soft humorless laugh, moving his knight.

"Deep, mate." Was all Ron responded with before continuing to slaughter his knight. "You should make it up to her."

He stopped his hand which had been about to move another his rook, and looked back to Ron with an incredulous look. "_You_ think I should make it up to her? Aren't you glad with this? Good riddance? Once slimy, always slimy?"

This time it was Ron who gave a sigh, as he frowned in thought. "I would have been the last time we talked about this but.. I hadn't really seen you two together before then, hardly could with the lessons that were going on and the fact that our seats are practically on opposite sides of the room. Stupid Professors.."

Harry didn't say anything, afraid that doing so would break the spell that was currently on Ron.

"For me, it all seemed to happen in the shadows, you know? You would sometimes disappear for entire evenings, soon after that you started to look really tired, and after hearing that you were spending most of that time with her, it simply seemed as if she was the cause to it somehow."

"I think that I can understand why it made you feel and think that way.." Harry said, trying to imagine it from the viewpoint of someone who could only watch from afar, before moving his rook.

"After that you started to help her out with The Order business without telling us anything. Not only that but she also started teaching you Occlumency, something you proved to be painful to learn with Snape last year."

Harry nodded guiltily. "For what it's worth; I'm sorry for not telling you guys."

"You better be, dumbass." Ron said deliberately before continuing. "A while after that I heard from Hermione that you would also be getting your robes from her."

"What does that matter where or how I get a pair of robes?" He asked giving Ron a skeptical look, dimly noting that their game was left mostly forgotten now.

"Because it felt like she was trying to turn you into some kind of Pureblood. Suited more toward her and less to us with the way she took your free time, taught you things, took your help and now; even decided the way you would dress. Because seriously, would you have gotten new dress-wear without her? or even remotely in the same style if you did?" Ron asked rapidly, taking on a good impression of Hermione as he threw it all out.

"I guess you are right. I probably wouldn't have gotten new attire if it had been someone else. I don't even know what kind of robe I will be wearing.. I guess that just shows my willingness to along with it all." He said with a small smile.

"Here, right there, mate! That's what I mean!" Ron said hastily, openly pointing at him with his index finger.

"What?" Harry asked in surprise, taking a quick look behind him to see what he had been pointing at.

Ron made a spreading gesture with his arms as if it was obvious. "The look on your face! You don't even mind it, do you? You would normally hate this kind of stuff, Harry, but you just smile at it!"

Harry silently looked back at him for a moment before giving a slight nod. "You're right. I do." He said simply. There was nothing else he could say, it was just as Ron said.

"So what changed the way you think about Daphne? At least you make it sound like something changed." He asked curiously.

Ron gave a small shrug. "It was during the supplementary lesson, and because of the things I saw when you two were on the stage."

Harry frowned at him in puzzlement. "Nothing really special happened there. What did you see?"

Ron groaned a bit at having to elaborate as he scratched the stumble on his jaw. "It's probably going to sound quite stupid but it was probably because I saw you two doing just that; nothing special. You just talked and joked with her in complete confidence, while Greengrass looked to be enjoying herself just as much you did, I began to doubt if it was really just an act."

"It was as if you were talking to Hermione. In complete confidence, but still.. differently. In a good way... I don't know. It's hard to describe and simply made me think about it again." He finished in a hushed tone, as if afraid that others would hear him say such things and laugh at him.

He gave a small smile. "I'm guessing that Hermione took her chance from that point onward?"

Ron snorted. "Yeah, she sure did, we talked about it. A lot. Not just Greengrass but also in general."

"I'm not saying that I will believe her when she tells me to jump off a cliff and that she'll safely catch me, but she is a friend of you now.. and always has been of Tracey. I could probably give people whom you and Tracey are friends with a chance." He grumbled reluctantly.

Harry grinned at his friend, happy and proud. "Look at you; traitor! How dare you think of any Slytherins like that!"

"Oh, shut up, you started it." The traitor rebuked good naturedly, before a silence fell around the two of them.

"So, how are things between you and Hermione these days?" Harry asked carefully, resuming their match.

His friend made a sound that didn't explain anything. "We fight less, and if we do it's about small things. I also try to listen longer to her than three seconds, that also seems to avoid misunderstandings and clashes. Never knew it could be that simple.."

"Yeah, I noticed that if you changing your opinion is anything to by with. Have things between you two.. changed?" Harry asked leaning back in his chair.

"I don't know. We got the chance to grow closer in the time you were away but it's still vague, maybe even scary, because things might not change for the better you know?" Ron said staring at the board with a faraway look. "I don't want us to fall apart, I've seen it happen to others around here."

"I understand what you mean." Harry said with a grimace, Daphne's face coming to mind again.

"Would you be okay with it, Harry? If Hermione and I were to.." Ron asked trailing off.

"Yeah." He said nodding a bit mechanically.

Ron smiled tentatively, and gratefully. "Thanks, that means a lot to me."

He didn't reply, the thought of them together and how he would fit in seemed odd and estranging to him. Nonetheless he felt like he shouldn't form an obstacle to Ron and Hermione if it gave them a chance to make it work and be happy with each other.

"Checkmate."

"Oh." Harry dully said, looking back down to the board to see his defeat. Well, It had been hopeless from the beginning anyway.

Ron took a slow breath as he started rearranging the pieces. "You should introduce me to Greengrass sometime, since I don't think either of us will be able to get rid of her anytime soon… Especially since you don't even want to, or do you?"

Harry already knew the answer to that but sank in thought nonetheless about Daphne.

"No, I don't."

"See? Then I might as well learn to live with it." Ron said with a sigh, likely thinking about the prospect of meeting her. "At least that is how Hermione puts it." He added in afterwards, no doubt choosing to describe it with other words if he had to answer with complete honesty.

Harry cracked a smile. "Yeah, sounds just like Hermione."

* * *

The rain outside was hard and heavy as he walked through the hallways with a purpose in mind. Gusts of wind slammed against the many windows to his right, rattling some of their frames. He hadn't asked for Hermione's thoughts and advice after his talk with Ron. It probably would have been better to ask a level headed girl like Hermione, but this was his problem, his fault and his responsibility.

Harry didn't want to take the easy route by asking her for the answers like he had previously done, because this was his answer to decide and his explanation to give. He needed to figure it out for himself without any more help and hints from others.

Harry halted when his hand was on the door handle of the classroom. He was aware that it was probably selfish and stupid to think that way, but he couldn't help it. He felt like he would betray Daphne by allowing others to influence or help decide the answer that was meant only for her from himself.

He turned the handle and revealed an empty and dark classroom to himself, the depressing clouds outside allowing only a little of the remaining sunlight to pass through them. He had asked Daphne to meet him here again during their silent Potions lesson and had arrived early, hoping to stand ready for her when she would come.

He had hardly seen Daphne the past few days, and when he did like during the previous Potions lesson it had been deathly silent, only exchanging a few words with him when absolutely necessary. Nott gave a smug smile when he noticed it, making Harry feel like wiping it off his face with his fist, while Professor Slughorn kept making obvious signs and encouragements that he should try and talk to her despite the chilly atmosphere. It wasn't the best Potions lesson he had this year.

The candles whisked themselves alight when he entered, allowing the room to be clearly seen again. It was the same classroom where she had learned him dance, and up till the recent Herbology lesson used for Occlumency training.

In the corner still stood the small assortment of magical instruments that had helped Daphne teach him the rhythm. They still had to return those to Slughorn… maybe they simply wanted to hold on to them and forgot to return them on purpose.

In the middle of the room stood a desk, looking slightly out of place as the others were stacked on top of each other on each sides of the room. It was the same desk he always Transfigured for them to sit on.

He felt the corners of his lips tug upward as he remembered the mangled couch-desk she had produced when she had tried it herself.

"I hope you're not quietly laughing at something I did in the past with that desk. It would serve as a bad start for this evening."

Harry turned to the voice he had been waiting for. "It was in a good way."

"I'm sure it was." Daphne said as she shut the door behind her. "Well, I'm here, Harry, and it's agonizing so just tell me already."

He sighed, he wasn't good at this. "Where to start.."

"How about telling me why you ignored everything I tried? I don't believe you to be that stupid. Not all the way until the end." She said in a tense voice before biting her lip. "You never pushed me away but you also hardly made any sign that you acknowledged it."

He raked a hand through his hair. "I was just plain stupid at first, but-"

"-Seriously? Did you think it was just some kind of joke? That it was just the way that I was?" She interrupted with a more steely but insulted tone.

He felt his eyes drop down to the floor in shame. "I did.. I did think that it was just you joking around. I've never seen you interact with anyone who is close to you but Tracey, and even of that I saw little."

"What was it after that then? You must've dimly realized it somewhere, and somehow. Are you not interested after all? Was I the one who read your reactions wrongly?"

He shook his head and looked back up to her frowning face. "It isn't that Daphne, I just.. I just didn't understand at first, such displays and actions. I had trouble believing that you genuinely would like... someone like me."

"..What is that supposed to mean?" Daphne asked sagging a bit in confusion, after a moment of silence.

"I-I'm some kind of celebrity, madman and savior here in the wizarding world while I'm none of those things in the muggle one. Sometimes… despite having spent most of the past six years here in the wizarding world I still feel like an outsider. I'm no better off with the muggle world either."

"I'm not buying it, I don't see how any of that applies to me. To us." She asked stepping forward and putting her hand on her chest.

Harry slightly turned his head to stare at the instruments in the corner next to her. "What I mean is that Hogwarts and the friends that I have here are my only home. I don't see myself fit in anywhere else. Not in the muggle or wizarding."

"You on the other hand, know everything about the wizarding and hardly know anything about the muggle, and I don't blame you for that. But I thought that over time.. that over time you would come to see that too about me.. That I don't belong here." He said with difficulty before swallowing a lump in his throat down, finding that his voice came out softer when he continued again. "I'm only here to try and protect everyone from Voldemort, It's what everyone needs, it's what everyone wants. I don't see myself do anything beyond that."

"I don't care where you belong, or where you end up, Harry. Because I will either knock some sense into you and drag you out of it, or follow you myself and adapt to whatever the problem is!" She nearly shouted as her hands balled into fists.

"And I have no trouble imagining that." He said with a wry smile, before it fell away.

He sighed. "I guess that I was also a coward, and let it become the biggest reason.. You don't know much about the Harry Potter who lives in the muggle world, and you hold no blame you for it, I myself am the cause for that. I never told you anything about it and never wanted to either."

Her adamant expression gave way for a small tender smile. "That's fine, Harry, we all have secr-"

"-No! it isn't fine!" He said raising his voice as he got angry at himself but quickly toned it down when she visibly jumped from it. He hardly ever raised his voice against her in a serious manner. "I was.. no I still am afraid that I won't live up to your expectations, and that I will eventually disappoint you if you are to see the other side of my life. To see the muggle Harry and before he became a wizard.. I didn't want to take the risk of hurting myself like that. I rather played it safe by simply staying friends with you."

"..I'm sorry, Daphne. I was selflessly trying to protect myself in my confusion, and ended up hurting you, and your pride in the process." He finally finished, glad to have it off his chest, and hoping that he had managed to salvage something.

Daphne's fists had uncurled throughout his explanation and gave a wet sniff as she rapidly blinked with her eyes, trying to dry her slightly wet eyes without the use of her hands to try and hide it.

"What's with you trying to give me a speech and all.. think you're so smart all of a sudden?" Daphne asked in a voice that tried to sound spiteful.

Harry didn't say anything, he didn't have an answer ready. The only sound that replied to her question was the rain outside gushing against the window with each gust of wind.

She stepped forward. "Tell me, did I ever express that I was unsatisfied with who you are? Did I ever ask you to be more than you are right now or more than you were at the beginning of when I met you? Did I deliberately allude you to such thoughts or pushed you to be someone else for me?"

Ron's words briefly came to mind, but he let them go just as quickly. Daphne didn't have bad intentions. She only wanted to help him in her own way. "No, Daphne and I know that but-"

"-Then don't place imaginary borders, don't let such thoughts affect your actions, and don't let it affect you, Harry. That isn't like you. Just act on what you feel, not what you, others or even I might think, that comes later." She gently interrupted.

He smiled a bit. "That sounds awfully Gryffindorish.."

She gave a soft and short laugh. "I guess it does.. Say, do you want to hear what my mother once told me when I was younger?" She asked placing a hand on his cheek with a smile, continuing In a whisper when he didn't answer. "It's the heart afraid of breaking that never learns to dance."

Harry didn't say anything in response, the words shot through him like hot, iron bolts. He swallowed a heavy lump away, and immersed himself in the feeling of her hand on his cheek for distraction.

"Show me the Harry from the muggle world sometime soon, okay? The good and the bad things, I'll prove to you that nothing will change my opinion about you." She said with a soft and reassuring voice as she placed her remaining hand on the other side of his face and slowly came closer to him, giving him all the time he needed to pull back. To give his answer.

He didn't pull away, because he didn't want to, only kissing her back when her soft lips met his for the second time. Feeling his arms encircle her slender back. The same back that he held before so many times already.

This time however, it was in a different way.

* * *

**Well here's the conclusion to that. Good thing it was right around the corner as I don't want anyone to come after me with torches and pitchforks, right? Hahaha..haha..ha.**

**But seriously, it's good that you guys are willing to knock me over the head for it in a (mostly) polite way, helps us all right? It doesn't guarantee that I'll throw my story upside down to fit what anyone wants (that would do more harm than anything else, since I simply won't ever be able to please everyone), but does make me reconsider things and look for possibilities to better this story.**

**References:**

**Daphne: "I.. I don't need such a thing, I'm completely fine, I promised Tracey that I would be." = reference to chapter 6**

**Ron: "It was during the supplementary lesson, and because of the things I saw when you two were on the stage." = reference to chapter 18**

**Harry: He felt the corners of his lips tug upward as he remembered the mangled couch-desk she had produced when she had tried it herself. = reference to chapter 13**

**Harry: "I had trouble believing that you genuinely would like... someone like me."= reference to chapter 16**

**Hope you enjoyed, lemme know what you think. Want me to note the ****references in each chapter like i did here?**

**Mendokusei: I watch everything from the fate series! And maybe it did influence a bit (subconsciously)**


	20. Out of Hand and Missing Hand

**Disclaimer: The Harry Potter Universe and all the characters belong to J.K. Rowling.**

* * *

He energetically put out step after step. The route they took was largely unused so at the moment they were pretty much the only ones in the hallway with no other students in sight besides themselves. They were currently all walking toward the reserved hall where they would be holding their next supplementary lesson, something he had been looking forward to.

"Uhm, Harry?" Hermione slowly asked.

"Yeah?" He answered, turning to look at Hermione.

"It is safe to assume that you managed to patch things up again with Daphne?" She asked raising her eyebrow questioningly.

He answered with a nod. "Yeah I did actually, why do you ask?"

"Oh, you know. I was just wondering why you were smiling like an idiot all day suddenly, and still are by the way… it's a bit unusual, not that it's a bad thing of course!" Hermione quickly added at the end.

"I'm not smiling like an idiot!" Harry exclaimed looking to Neville and Ron for support. Only to find the opposite as they gave him sarcastic expressions.

Well maybe it did show on his face a bit... His kiss with Daphne had been short and simple but it had made his heart soar as he held her with the rain drumming against the windows. It had been a bit goofy and awkward afterward but she had seemed extremely pleased when they departed.

He also felt glad that both of them had managed to get things of their chests, it made his ever heavy shoulders feel a bit lighter. There was still the issue of yet having to show her his past but her confidence and determination about her feelings and opinion on him seemed to boost his own. He still doubted but less so, maybe Daphne could learn more about the Harry from the muggle world without coming to think negatively of him. He could only wait and see.

"Still I'm a bit upset that you didn't ask for any advice from me.. I'm a girl too you know, I could easily have provided you with some insight." Hermione said lightly, but probably still felt a bit offended despite her tone.

He gave her an apologetic look. "I know that, Hermione, but I needed to do it on my own this time. I'll make sure to come to you plenty of times in the future."

"I can't really imagine the situation of not wanting to ask for advice and information on something you don't fully understand, but I guess that it was mostly you being stubborn again." Hermione replied with a sigh.

"Yeah, that was pretty much the case."

"Doesn't really explain why you've been like this all day. Did something else happen? Happened to find a whole stash of forgotten essays for us to use?" Ron asked eying him curiously, as if expecting them to be right there underneath his robes.

He rolled his eyes. "No, Ron, it's nothing like that."

"What is it then? No insult intended but having you smile all day is rather worrisome to see." Neville piped up after his response to Ron.

He gave Neville a sour expression. It wasn't that unusual to see, right?

"Oh, look there's our Harry, again." Ron said after seeing his sour face. "Was beginning to think that someone hit you with a Cheering Charm or something in the morning."

"Come off it guys, leave Harry alone." Hermione said with no real force behind it as she smiled a bit.

"Twats, all of you." He said in feigned annoyance before stopping flat in his tracks, making the others do the same as he strained his ears, hearing familiar voices nearby. "I'll tell you guys sometime later, be silent for now."

"Think you can just- mphf!" Ron tried to argue before Hermione shut him up by putting a hand over his mouth as they went quiet and waited around the corner, following his lead.

"Haha, seriously, Looney!" He heard Nott laugh arrogantly along others. "What are these things even? Butterbeer caps?"

"Yes, it helps ward off the Wrackspurts." Came Luna's blank reply to his question, completely clear and serious but he could sense discomfort in it as well, and assumed that this had already been going on for some time before they came.

"You truly live up to your name Looney! I'm sure that someday you might even surpass the insanity of your own father!" Nott said humorously before joining the lumbering laughs that had started after his insult.

"Asshole." Neville softly bristled in anger.

Harry felt surprised at Neville's outburst but could understand his reaction since his own parents were still hospitalized in St. Mungo's. Hearing other people joke about it in a deliberately hurtful manner was no doubt infuriating.

"My father isn't insane.." Luna replied in a tense voice, to which Harry decided that he had heard enough already, he knew who was with her and that there were multiple of them. Harry didn't know much about her family, and her father was likely a bit of a special case just like herself but calling either her of her father insane went too far.

"You shouldn't talk about the sanity of others if your own father is in Azkaban, Nott. Rightfully so of course." Harry said as he and his other friends stepped into view from behind the corner.

Nott and the others around him looked up and turned around from the spot in which they had cornered Luna, after which she saw her chance and subtly moved away from them to their side. Nott's eyes followed Luna as she moved away from them, but didn't make any move to stop her.

Nott wasn't alone either, just like Harry had predicted. Around him stood Crabbe and Goyle which had provided the lumbering laughs at his _jokes_. A bit to his surprise however, was Malfoy still looking as tired as ever, who gave a glare at him when their eyes met. There wasn't much intensity in them however, as he looked like he wanted to do nothing more than leave.

He knew that Malfoy and his cronies were practically inseparable but his lack of presence and activity this year had Harry nearly forget all about him as time silently went on after the incident with Katie, giving him no leads or proof that Malfoy was possibly a Death Eater. Nott making sure to center himself as the new vocal point of annoyance and attention also hadn't helped him focus on Malfoy.

Nott's dark brown eyes gleamed in a spike of disgrace, but remained calm otherwise. "Better imprisoned than dead, am I right? At least my father will be free and return to me after a while. Sadly that isn't the case for you."

Now it was Harry's time to bristle as he reached for his wand, his opponents and friends reacting likewise.

"Please, Harry." Hermione pleaded with a hand on his arm, keeping it lowered. "We are not at fault here and shouldn't change that fact either."

"I would rather have a dead father I can be proud of than a father that is worth less than a pile of owl droppings!" Ron unceremoniously continued, not one to let go of an insult that easily.

"Wise advice Harry, we should all listen to her." Nott said in an overly polite nod to Hermione, completely ignoring Ron, much to the latter's annoyance. "And now that we are on the topic of advice; did you listen to my mine? The atmosphere was a bit tense, last time I saw you two in class. I sure do hope you managed to end things in a friendly way."

His friends around him didn't get what he was talking about, but Harry did. Nott was referring to the conversation they had last time they met in the hallway. Nott evidently thought that he and Daphne weren't friends with each other anymore because of the chilly silence they shared in the recent Potions lesson.

Harry couldn't help but let a smug look take over upon his face. Nott couldn't be farther from the truth.

"Oh, it's been great thanks for asking, and no I didn't listen to your _advice_, even without a brain in my head I would still have enough common sense not to listen to your nonsense." He said in satisfaction as Nott's face became strained with keeping the annoyance from openly showing.

"Turn away, Nott. Ron and I are prefects, we can place detention upon you for what you did to Luna." Hermione commanded in a no-nonsense tone as she looked directly at him.

He let out a short and soft mocking laugh in response. "Detention? I doubt that a little joke would be enough reason for detention but I'll take your truthful word for it."

Nott curtly gestured with his head to Malfoy and his cronies who turned to follow him. Walking away with their backs to them.

"He's up to something." Neville simply said, pocketing his wand to which the others followed his example.

Harry only nodded silently as he watched them walk away before turning around himself and moving away. "Let's just go we still have the dance lesson."

"Luna, are you okay? Take another route and walk with us for a while. They didn't break any of your.. things, right?" Hermione asked gesturing and looking at the many accessories that Luna wore with a concerned expression.

Luna smiled at her sympathy. "I'm fine, the-"

"-Reducto!"

Harry whirled around, whipped out his wand and conjured a shield.

He had been too late however, turning around, pulling out his wand and conjuring the shield had taken too long. The Curse was already past the minimum range of his barrier, forcing him to look on helplessly as it collided with Luna's lower back. She had been targeted from the beginning. Not him.

Luna only had time to look surprised before giving a yelp as she was blasted forward, her back bending backward as if a troll had clubbed her, sliding and tumbling a few times across the floor before coming to a stop face-down, moaning softly in pain.

In the corner of his eyes he saw Nott standing there with his wand raised. Smiling.

"You coward!" He yelled. The calm smile only adding to his anger, causing it to surge through his body, encouraging him to make Nott pay for it tenfold as he flung the same spell back at him.

Duels immediately ensued, with pairings that went for each other as if predetermined from the start. Ron took his wand up against Goyle, Neville went for Crabbe, and Hermione engaged Malfoy.

Nott deftly sidestepped his Curse and returned fire with a Confundo followed by a Diffindo.

Harry stepped away from the first and raised a shield for the latter, letting the Curse rebound and slice off an appendage of a nearby statue which crumbled into multiple pieces after making contact with the floor.

He stepped forward and banished the broken pieces toward Nott before adding in a Confringo and Scalpere with a shout, making a hasty dodge to avoid a stray spell from Ron and Goyle's duel as soon as he had fired his spells.

Harry was disappointed to see Nott take care of it by using a Reducto again and sweeping his wand in a wide arc, destroying the rumble that he had sent flying to him before raising a shield to absorb both of his spells with little damage being done to the shield he had raised.

Harry wanted to continue his assault but was forced to sidestep a Curse that had already been sent back to him in retaliation, letting it harmlessly fly past him while carefully taking note of his surroundings. He didn't want stray spells to hit him or his friends.

He didn't like admitting it but Nott posed much more of an challenge than Malfoy, he could already notice by the way he took on a stance, moved around and made use of spells in a variety of ways that he was no newcomer to duels and likely got training or lessons of some sort.

Harry batted a Bludgeon Curse aside with his want before returning fire again with a Expulso and Stupefy again. Gritting his teeth in frustration when the shields Nott conjured simply absorbed or rebounded each of his spells with a look of passive concentration.

"You shouldn't take honorable combat for granted, Harry! It's a sign of the weak." Nott called out from behind his shields as he fired a Diffindo in the small window of time that he lowered them. It was completely off-track however as it was aimed toward an entirely different direction Harry currently was.

A spike of panic shot through him when he saw that it was aimed toward Hermione's back whom was busy fighting Malfoy, she would never sense it coming from behind and was left wide open.

This time was different however, he was prepared for it and quickly conjured a shield for Hermione's exposed back letting the cutting curse rebound into a nearby wall as she continued in uninterrupted concentration with her duel against Malfoy.

Harry momentarily had to switch focus by doing that however, and paid for it with his own body as a new Reducto slammed into his chest like an oversized hammer, making him grunt in pain as the feeling of a sickening crack went through him.

"I'm your opponent, you little shit!" Harry roared in now boiling anger before advancing to Nott's position. Feeling his chest burn from his shouting as he firing new spells at Nott, only to see them rendered useless as the same durable shields were raised in response.

"I'm very much aware of that, Potter, but everyone should keep track of their surroundings and use whatever openings occur to their advantage. I simply made use of such an opportunity." Nott responded as he emerged from behind his shields again to fire a new Reducto at him.

Harry only seethed, this was the second time he tried such an underhanded trick to win. Targeting someone utterly defense just to gain an advantage in his own duel. He didn't even bother himself with dodging or shielding himself from Nott's incoming Reducto as he raised his wand.

"Reducto!"

His own Reducto Curse collided with that of Nott, resulting in a small, white explosion that thundered through the long hallway, causing Nott to fall backwards on his back from the force as he was hit by most of blast while everyone else was momentarily staggered.

Having expected the blast to occur, Harry only momentarily stopped to steady himself before marching on again, intent on his target.

"Os Fractionis!" He bellowed, thrusting the spell at him with a violent and concentrated jab._ Let's see how those shields of yours handle this. _He thought spitefully as he fired the Bone-Breaking Curse.

Nott, who was already on his feet again, albeit a bit unsteadily in his haste, erected a new shield to absorb his incoming Curse. But looked visibly surprised from behind his transparent barrier when the sound of breaking glass signified the damage on his shield.

Harry didn't wait for him to make another move as he starting firing a stream of Bone-Breaking and Bone-Splintering Curses, feeling exhilaration when surges of magic passed through him with each spell that was being generated. It was a feeling he had felt a few times before during his practice sessions, and always motivated him to do more.

Nott had to take a step back and strengthen his shield in the effort of keeping It intact after each ringing blow bashed against it. A quick and calculative look on his face in search of opportunities and solutions as he withstood the assault of Curses.

It did less to cool Harry's anger however, he didn't want to see Nott in a calm and collected state. He deserved to be in panic, chaos, and pain for what he did to Luna and tried to do against Hermione.

_'__Harness your hate.. make it useful!' _

His vision reddened for a split second and Harry felt a spike of shock run through him as he heard the voice again, he knew as to whom it belonged to and what it wanted, but he had no time to think his actions through lest Nott recover his shield again in the downtime he would show hesitation.

He simply acted and listened, putting all his fury behind his next Breaking Curse, feeling it sing and crackle with power in his hand and vibrate in slight discordance against his wand. Harry ignored it however, he was already used to it acting this way and forced his wand to obey. This wasn't the time and moment for disobedience.

Harry took another step forward with his right foot and steadied his left foot behind him, sinking low before thrusting the empowered Breaking Curse forward, resulting in a sudden rush of power speeding through as he felt his arm and shoulder jerk back in recoil when the spell left him in an aggressive rush to be released.

He felt himself grin a bit when Nott lost his collected expression for a more panicked one as he saw the spell coming at him with high velocity, quickly trying to strengthen his shield before it would collide, realizing that he wouldn't be able to dodge it in time.

The sound of glass breaking loudly ringed one more time again as his shield was shattered into a million pieces that glittered in blue and white colours as they were scattered around. Nott himself was flung backwards and got the air knocked out of him when he harshly collided with the wall behind him, sagging in on himself after he slid down, arms hanging limply by his sides with his wand rolling out of reach.

He advanced on Nott and kicked his wand further away when he got closer. The grin on his face already having fallen away, as it made place again for simmering emotions.

"..Heh, look at me.. how disgraceful.. thinking that it would be easy to subdue you all... I didn't account for the fact that you just might be able to beat me.. I underestimated you." Nott wheezed out when he got enough control of his lungs again.

"Learned your lesson?" He asked simply as he stared down at the defeated Slytherin. Daring him to say otherwise, daring Nott to give him a reason to use force again.

"Heh, where is the fun in that, Potter? Your friends are your weakness. It was the most effective way of hurting you. Don't blame me for your mistakes, you should have listened to me in the first place." Nott laughed weakly after a moment of silence. "But you could say that I did learn my lesson, since I'll do things a bit differently next time I go after you all. Rest assured about that."

"Wrong answer." Harry hissed, pointing his wand at Nott's hand and firing a Bone-Splintering Curse point-blank at it, hearing the sound of multiple bones rapidly cracking and breaking in the affected area, the effect being intensified by the close proximity in which he fired.

Nott gave a short scream as he doubled over his hand, giving new cries when he instructively cradled it against his chest in pain before letting it lie still on his lap again, every movement his hand made being hurtful to him.

"It.. doesn't matter... Expect proper r-retaliation for this.. Potter.…." Nott breathed out in a hissing voice as he tried to keep the pain out of it.

Harry felt his anger surge again at the continued threats and raised his wand again as he narrowed his eyes at Nott's dark ones. "You don't learn, do you? Maybe one hand simply isn't eno-"

"-What is going on here!? Cease fighting this instant!" A stern and angry voice exclaimed, causing him to jump out of his induced state and realize what he was doing. He immediately made use of his Occlumency to try and control his emotions, only to notice that it took a great deal of effort and time before his cold and vengeful feelings were contained. He always had been bad at controlling his emotions and likely always would be in the future.

Harry turned his head to see McGonagall's imposing posture and expression not too far down the corridor as she ended Ron's duel by stunning Goyle, letting him drop down limply with a heavy thud as Ron removed the Sticking Charm that seemed to have been cast on his feet.

The other duels had already ended or stopped as Crabbe seemed to have been bound by Neville while Malfoy had only just been disarmed by Hermione. However most of his friends weren't looking at their enemies or even McGonagall for that matter as she inspected Luna's now silent form. They only looked at him with a mixture of shock and surprise on their faces.

"I came here expecting a fight with all the noise, but this is pandemonium! Granger, Weasley explain what happened here, you are the prefects here!" McGonagall sternly commanded when she rose again.

That seemed to snap them out of it as Hermione quickly turned to the Professor.

"Professor! It started when we passed by here and heard that Nott, Malfoy and the others were bullying Luna. We confronted them about this, they turned away but attacked Luna from behind when we weren't looking anymore, she had no chance of defending herself from Nott's Reducto. We all started dueling after that." Hermione explained in her rush of adrenaline that was still present.

"Is this true, Mr. Malfoy? Was Miss Lovegood dishonorably attacked by any of you?" She asked, staring down her square spectacles at Malfoy as he came to his feet again and snatched his wand from Hermione's hand.

He glared at Hermione for a moment, the vile word he had for her already on the top of his tongue before stopping himself and replying to the Professor. "No. They tried to provoke us and started attacking when that didn't work. Looney simply lost her duel, she was too weak to defend herself."

McGonagall looked down at him for a moment longer, obviously not believing him but seeing that it was simply their word against those of Malfoy's. Choosing their side would only show favoritism.

"Watch your language around me Mr. Malfoy. I do not condone degrading nicknames against any students in this castle. However, whether or not Lovegood was attacked from a blind spot or simply lost, the fact that multiple duels were held in the hallways, with her ending up as a casualty remains unchanged." McGonagall reprimanded steely. "Thirty points from Slytherin for landing a student in the infirmary. You and the others will report to your head of house for further punishment. Right now."

"Yes. Professor." Malfoy replied with a barely restrained sneer before enervating Goyle and unbinding Crabbe.

Harry grimaced as he watched them leave the hallway, already knowing what further punishments would be handed out to them by Snape. None.

Ron seemed to think so too as he burst out of his controlled silence with a fuming expression. "What!? This is bollocks, Professor! Snape won't give them any punishment. Hell, he'll probably even _award_ them with the same points they just lost for it! They blasted Luna right off her socks when we weren't looking!"

McGonagall briefly gained a conflicted look in her eyes as she likely agreed with him but refrained herself from voicing it in any way.

"Granger, Weasley, Longbottom." She said in a less stern voice as she conjured a stretcher and slowly levitated Luna onto it. "Please see to it that Miss Lovegood arrives at the infirmary while I finish things here."

"Yes, Professor." Hermione timidly responded, saddened at the state in which Luna was in and the injustice of it all. Helping Neville pull a protesting Ron along as Luna floated in front of them toward the infirmary.

"And what in Merlin's name happened between you two? Potter seems to have an injury to his chest while your hand looks like a centaur recently stomped on it." McGonagall asked Nott after she had come closer to them and taken a glimpse of Nott's limp hand.

Harry ignored the stinging pain is his chest and looked down at his feet with a sinking feeling settling in his stomach. He hadn't been thinking at all, he had stuck Nott when he had already been down and defeated, maybe even with the intention of doing more if she hadn't interrupted. Nott's hand was a deformed appearance of what it once was as the bones that would normally give it shape were now either disconnected, splintered or broken, giving it a mangled and gangly look. Pomfrey would easily be able to heal it, but that wasn't the issue all that much.

"The same as what happened to the others, Professor.. ours just went a little bit differently. With more force namely." Nott tried to gloss over despite the pain in his voice.

"I see." Was all McGonagall said as she cast a spell at Nott's hand, making if go stiff and slightly blue. As if she had frozen it. "Go tend to your hand in the infirmary Mr. Nott, I take it that this will suffice for the journey there until Pomfrey can help you."

"It will. Thank you, Professor." He replied after slowly standing up and inspecting his stiff hand, seeing that it was completely immobilized and numbed down.

'I take it that the proper penalties will be implemented for this wrongdoing?" He stopped to ask after having taken a few steps toward the infirmary. The obnoxious smile back in place again as the pain was greatly diminished.

"I will do my role as a Teacher, Nott. You should do yours as a student by listening and heading toward the infirmary already as per instruction." McGonagall slightly snapped, showing that she as usual, had little patience for these kind of things.

"Then I will take my leave." He silkily added, letting his gaze linger on Harry as he adjusted his messy tie with his undamaged hand before turning on his heel and walking away.

"Thirty points from Gryffindor for needing to send a student to the infirmary." McGonagall said primly before her stiff posture seemed to relax ever so slightly when they were alone. "I won't give you or your friends any detention Mr. Potter. I fully understand that they won't get any further punishment from Severus either as Mr. Weasley noted, and that Miss Granger's story is most likely the true one."

"Thank you, Professor." Harry replied a bit surprised at her actions, moments where she let him of easy were rare. It was likely due to the unfairness of it otherwise. She had a tendency to become lenient during such instances.

"Walk with me to the infirmary, I can see that you are also hurt." She said before turning around and walking off, obviously expecting him to follow, which he did." Sadly I have no quick remedies for chest damage. You'll have to endure it until then." McGonagall continued when he had fallen in step with her.

"It's okay Professor, I've had worse." Harry said truthfully as the Cruciatus came to mind.

She gave no direct response to his answer and kept on walking, whether that was because she understood or merely thought that he was acting tough he didn't know.

"What spell did you use, Mr. Potter?" The Transfiguration Professor asked, more out of confirmation than anything else as she had recognized the effect all too well when she saw Nott's hand.

He wasn't surprised at her question after seeing his hand and answered. "Bone-Breaking and Splintering, Professor."

McGonagall's posture and walking speed didn't change, her lips however, seemed to thin out slightly more as she seemed to accept the fact.

"You realize that the only reason such a spell isn't declared illegal is because of the fact that it can be blocked by using a shield or mended by various healing methods?" She asking giving him a look out of the corner of her eyes.

"I do, Professor." Harry said simply.

"And do you also realize that such a spell can also prove fatal if used on the head and neck?" She continued.

"I do, Professor, but a simple cutting Curse could also be fatal if it happened to hit an artery. It's about how we choose to use them." He replied carefully in his defense.

"Indeed Mr. Potter, the only difference between those two however, is that in most cases there would still be enough time to close the wound and replenish the lost blood. A Bone-Breaking Curse striking the head or neck does not give the same leniency. The person will be dead instantly. Please remember that as fatal accidents can happen that way." McGonagall said seriously as she did her best to convey the importance of her words.

Harry silently nodded signaling that he understood. He could understand her concern, he had been fully aware of the strengths and weaknesses when he started learning the spells and knew what would prove fatal and what wouldn't. But knowing the dangers and being careful to avoid them didn't necessarily guarantee anything, things could have gone very wrong in his duel with Nott with dire consequences being the result. He had come to hate Nott just as much as Malfoy but that didn't mean that he wanted either of them to take a fatal spell and die on the spot.

At least that was how he thought about it now that he could think clearly again. Not much of those thoughts had been present during his duel, and that worried him a bit.

"You will report to the Headmaster after your chest is healed, Mr. Potter." McGonagall said breaking the short silence that had settled in as they walked to the infirmary.

"Professor Dumbledore? Why?" He asked surprised that it was Dumbledore he had to go see.

"To talk about this of course, that and the fact that Albus has more business to talk about with you. Rightfully so if I do say so myself, we already have our hands full without you spreading information about the resistance around for everyone to hear." She said softly, throwing a glance of accusation down at him.

"They can be trusted, besides they would have been doomed if I didn't." He said looking back.

"Regardless, I hope this is a one-time thing. You can't always help and save everyone, Potter. Every day the papers continue to show those who have been 'doomed' as you put it." McGonagall replied gravely.

* * *

Harry silently followed McGonagall into the Headmaster's office after his visit to the infirmary. Madam Pomfrey had proceeded to nurse him back to health as she complained about students turning into warmongers these days. Stating that he had a fractured rib after her diagnosis spell and proceeded to give him a foul tasting healing potion again coupled with a few healing spells.

She also told him that Luna's spine had taken quite a beating in that blast and needed to spend a night in the infirmary for observation and recovery. Luckily she wasn't in need of regrowing them. Pomfey had said that she would be able to mend the damage without the use of Skelegrow.

His other friends luckily had no such injuries and were free to go after a few bruises and stinging spots from hexes were removed. Neville told him that he would go back to the supplementary lesson to go tell Daphne about what happened to them. Since she was likely worried about his absence as she is likely to notice that something is amiss when all his other friends also don't show up to the lesson.

One of the first things he noticed when entering the room was that Marvolo's Ring was no longer on Dumbledore's desk, causing him to no longer feel the feelings of longing and familiarity toward it like when he had been in the office last time. He could only assume that Dumbledore had managed to destroy it since then.

Not too far he saw Fawkes on its perch, his crimson feathers gleamed prettily in the warm light of the candles that were lit throughout the room. His black eyes were looking curiously at the new visitors before giving a soft thrill when he recognized Harry.

"Evening Albus, I have brought Mr. Potter here." McGonagall greeted as they entered the item filled office.

"Ah, Minerva. What brings you here? With Harry too nonetheless." He asked from behind his desk as he saw who entered, putting his long red quill back into its ink pot, stopping with whatever document he had been busy with.

"Mr. Potter here just got from the infirmary after healing a cracked rib he had sustained in his fight with Nott. Mr. Nott himself was worse off however, as every bone in his right-hand was either broken or shattered. I believed this to be something that required your attention as it was achieved by using a Bone-Splintering Curse." McGonagall said giving a quick summary of what happened. "Not to mention that you have other business to discuss with Potter." She finished with a clear hint to Dumbledore.

"You are right in both aspects, Minerva. Thank you for bringing Harry here. There are indeed many things that I need to discuss, my own tardiness delayed the appointment however." The Headmaster replied with a small smile, motioning for Harry to sit in the armchair opposite from the desk to which he quietly complied.

…

"Do you wish to speak in private with Mr. Potter?" McGonagall asked a bit prickly after Dumbledore didn't make a move to address him. She was likely not feeling much for being left out when it entailed business on The Order.

"I'm afraid so, Minerva. Multiple subjects will be breached some of those being private between Harry and myself, I will relay information to you later. Please forgive my rudeness." Dumbledore said apologetically, moving to grab a Lemon Drop with his right hand, stopping however as if he realized something and instead reached out with his other hand into the bowl before holding it out to her. "Lemon Drop before you go?"

Harry saw her looking at the candy for a moment and knew that she had once tried one. To her regret.

"No thank you, Albus. I have my health to watch out for and so should you." She said in a voice of slight distaste before turning to leave the office. Letting the door automatically close behind her with a click, leaving him alone with the Headmaster.

"First things first, Harry." Dumbledore began with a sigh as he closed his eyes. opening them again to reveal that his twinkling blue eyes had been replaced for steely ones as the smile had vanishes for a thin line. "I am a bit incensed."

Harry could immediately feel every bit of the strongest Wizard alive that was Albus Dumbledore as he sat at the opposite end of the stare, feeling his power and temper shining through those metal like orbs. The ancient Wizard didn't have to elaborate for him what he was talking about. It was about him relaying information of The Order to Tracey and Daphne without their-his consent.

His gaze was intimidating but Harry didn't wilt or falter in his own either. He still didn't regret what he did and likely never would in the future. Trying to convince The Order to let them join for their safety would either have resulted in a long and drawn out argument between both sides until an agreement was finally made, or even The Order's declination to their pleas, especially against Daphne's family, which would have been no surprise with their history.

"Do you understand what kind of damage your actions could have inflicted? You delivered some very sensitive information to people you hardly knew anything about." Dumbledore continued.

"I only gave them a couple of words. It doesn't matter whether or not they, or the Death Eaters heard about it. It doesn't mean anything to them. Voldemort already knows about the Prophecy and is coming either way."

Dumbledore slowly shook his head and closed his eyes for a moment. "It isn't necessarily about _what_ you relayed to them but more about the fact _that _you gave it to them because you felt obligated to help Young Miss Greengrass and her friend in their time of need without our permission or consult. It is for this very reason that you and the others were not allowed to join The Order and attend its meetings. You prove to be unreliable with information that could mean life or death."

"I know very well what I did. It would have been a different story if it had actually been something important for the enemy to know, but it wasn't and I had the opportunity to give their lives more protection." Harry said in his defense.

"..I've come to learn after various conversations with Lord Greengrass and Mr. Davis that they've had multiple visits of Voldemort's recruiters in the past, where they expressed that they either didn't have an answer yet or didn't want to join him in his crusade. And I mostly believe them by now but let's just make a hypothesis here; what if that was all a lie and they all worked for Voldemort since the beginning of his return? We would've had a family full of spies on our hands with information on The Order." Dumbledore said looking pointedly.

"That would have been a mistake, yes" Harry admitted, understanding what could have gone wrong as he kept his own gaze locked on Dumbledore. "But I know that Daphne spoke the truth. I could see it in her eyes and hear it in her voice, she meant every word that she said."

"That maybe so, but there is a different between trust and blind foolishness, Harry.. What if even one person in her family worked for Voldemort as a spy? Miss Greengrass would have had no idea about it then, allowing her words to convince you in the same heartfelt honesty. Resulting with us yet again having a spy in our midst with only a general idea as to who it might be... Sadly it isn't that unusual for a family member or friend to betray their close ones for the promise of having their own wishes fulfilled." Dumbledore said urgently before losing his steely gaze for a more pained one. "Your own family is a tragic example of that, Harry.."

Any argument he would have had was lost there. He hadn't stopped to consider that possibility. The possibility that Daphne or Tracey's families too might have a betrayer in their midst like he and his own friends and family had in the past that led to all this in the first place hadn't come to mind. He felt stupid and could already hear Hermione's words repeat themselves in his head.

_'__Feeling isn't always enough, Harry.'_

It had been rash and incomplete decision making of him again, he had put the people in The Order at risk because he followed his heart more than his head, because it felt like the right thing to do... However, the right thing didn't necessarily mean the best thing in the end. Harry felt sorry for his hasty decision making and lack of safety precautions, but didn't feel regret over his decision of having helped Daphne and Tracey, and wondered if that was bad thing. His heart said it had been the right thing to do, but his mind said that it had been stupid if seen in a logical and statistical sense.

"I can see that you now realize your mistake." Dumbledore said as his eyes twinkled again. "It really does please me to see you follow your heart so much, Harry. But don't forget what you have upstairs." He said tapping his temple. "Try to take both the things your mind and heart says in consideration when you make such important decisions."

Harry silently nodded in response, not knowing what to say in response instead of a simple yes.

"In any case, I have had long conversations with both Lord Greengrass and Mr. Davis in which we could reach agreements that were safe and beneficial to the both of us."

Harry looked back up as he gained a curious look in response to this. "Such as?"

Dumbledore lightly shrugged. "Pretty basic, aid and supplies when we need it from them and The Order's protection and support when they in turn need it. So far not much of the informational side, which pleased both of us in regards to the safety we seek."

"Sounds like a good deal for both parties, even when in doubt of the Greengrass family." Harry said with a small smile, glad that in the end it went well for everyone involved.

"Yes I thought so too. I don't necessarily suspect any spies in either the Davis or Greengrass family but one can never be too cautious. In any case, I am glad that you learned of your mistake and that we can leave it behind us for the next topic." He said in a pleasant tone.

"Because you know, the thing is that." Dumbledore began casually as he made to grab a Lemon Drop out of his bowl with his hand before stopping again as if catching himself and switching over to his left hand again instead. "Minerva never liked my Lemon Drops, simply from the very moment after having tried one many years ago, however I think that tasting bad candy is good for you once in a while, don't you think so too?"

"I guess it is... If only for the fact that it helps you understand what kind you like and dislike." Harry replied with a shrug, wondering whether or not something was wrong with Dumbledore's hand. The way he stopped himself from using his right hand was quite strange.

"Exactly, it helps distinguish. But what if you continue to digest and taste something that tastes bad for you? Time after time, again and again?" The Headmaster asked as he stopped his inspection on the sweet and popped it in his mouth.

".. the taste would become less noticeable because we grow accustomed to it?" Harry said remembering the cold leftovers he always got from his relatives, over time it had become a dull taste. Not likeable nor dislikeable, just there for him to eat.

The Headmaster nodded in agreement to his words. "Indeed, Harry. I like to think that the same principle applies to other undesirable areas too. If we stand in the dark our eyes too for example grow accustomed to the darkness. The same applies to pain too as sad as it is, enduring stronger effects will allow you to stand through more difficult and painful ones in the future. Or when we have to perform an dreadfully boring task every day. Over time we grow accustomed to these unpleasantries and are able to deal with them a little better each time."

"The same idea applies to the good things as well, for example if you achieved something you are proud of it at first and can boast about it but over time the feeling of accomplishment and exhilaration might fade for modesty. Or when you taste something delicious and continue to eat it, over time the taste will become dull in the same sense as the bad candy."

"Harry, can you tell me the difference between those two? Between pleasant and unpleasant experiences that will become numb for over time?" Dumbledore asked looking expectantly at him.

"Only that you tend to avoid the unpleasant and reach out for new pleasant ones." He answered saying the first logical thing that came to mind.

"Exactly, Harry!" Dumbledore said smiling at his answer.

"The bad taste, dark nights, pain, and unpleasant tasks are all things you tend to avoid if you can, but when we grow accustomed to them we aren't as bothered by them anymore as in the beginning. We grow accustomed because we don't have a choice, they happen against your will or on accident. You do not actively seek them out nor do you seek new ones, lest you have to go through the process of growing accustomed again."

"Sir, what are you trying to say?" Harry asked not understanding where Dumbledore was going with his story.

"In a moment." Dumbledore said patiently before continuing.

"It's the opposite for pleasant ones however, if you achieved something good you start to work toward something greater for the earlier task has already been achieved and is now nothing special anymore in comparison to your next goal. Or when your favorite treat has become dull after some time you go search for a new delicacy to renew the feeling of satisfaction and pleasure. "

"Now it is exactly as you said. We tend to avoid the unpleasant but reach out for the pleasant. The core question that I have in conjunction to this story is; was your first experience with the Bone Curse pleasant or unpleasant?"

Harry lapsed as the question was presented to him, seeing where Dumbledore was going with this. The Headmaster wanted to know whether or not his first experience with the Dark Arts had felt like a good one for him.

Well Harry wasn't actually correct in thinking that the Bone-Breaker had been his first. The Cruciatus Curse on Bellatrix in the ministry had been his first experience, but at the time the spell had only half succeeded, and only served to silence Bellatrix taunting cries for a mere second before she recovered and returned fire. He hadn't felt anything when he fired it, not pleasant or unpleasant just an empty spell that had failed in his inexperience of the Arts.

Harry made eye contact with the Headmaster and decided that he would tell the truth. His experiences with the Arts as of late might have been good ones but that didn't change him as a person. They were merely a powerful and effective tool for him to use in his-no _their_ protection.

"My first experience with the Breaking Curse was a good one and continued to be after that."

Dumbledore nodded slowly. "I see. In most cases it is an unpleasant one, the majority of those cases being the Aurors and Hit Wizards that use them. For those it causes a dull or no aftertaste at all which leaves little desire for more in the future."

"I'm guessing that Death Eaters and the like make up most if not all of the minority then?" Harry asked with a feeling and grimace.

"Yes, they do make up a large part unfortunately, It was the same for young Voldemort; for Tom. The spells didn't feel negative to him whatsoever. Only exhilaration and lust for more...just like Gellert." The Headmaster said slowly, trailing off into memories that seemingly went back far into the past. "The danger of a pleasant experience with the spells is as I explained with the candy; the feelings of satisfaction and exhilaration will dull over time after seeing a repeated use because you grow accustomed to them. In order to achieve the same result again other and more powerful spells must be used, which sparks the moving of a spiral staircase that only goes deeper downward into the dark."

"And me? Are you thinking that I'm becoming the next Voldemort now because I also have this reaction?" Harry asked a bit incredulous at what he was implying, the mere idea of him becoming like that was absurd to him.

"Oh no, no. I never wanted to give you that idea, Harry, you are fundamentally different from Voldemort or young Riddle. I know that you would never take pleasure in torture and killing, you are an exception in that group. " He said looking a bit surprised that such I thought came to Harry. "I choose to trust you in this matter."

He nodded but felt slightly guilty at the compliment when he thought about his actions against Nott. It was true that he hadn't taken pleasure in hurting him, but as he recalled the end of their battle and how he had acted under the flames of hatred he found that it wasn't something to easily brush off. He couldn't remember himself being like that in his duels with Malfoy in the previous years. Heated and with none too friendly spells, yes. But not continuing to attack with the intent of pain and punishment after he had clearly won.

"Who is this Gellert you also mentioned as an example?" Harry asked after Fawkes give soft thrill of sleepiness.

"Gellert is… a story for another time. Instead I wish to leave you with a message and warning on the original topic. Not a threat of punishment, but a message and warning of an aged Wizard that has seen the downfall of many men." Dumbledore said his intense blue eyes holding his emerald ones. "Harry, you have only seen the tail of the dragon that lurks around the corner, be careful where you trespass. Your affinity to the Arts will make the path to learning easier but the dangers bigger."

Harry gave a single nod in response. "Yes, Professor."

"Even tall men can drown when they slip in shallow waters. I urge you to be careful in the subject and their repeated use, it is a different matter for those who gain an positive reaction out of it." Dumbledore said with an intent gaze. "My own reaction might seem a bit exaggerated, but please consider my paranoid thoughts and feelings to be a reflection of what I have seen happen in the past."

"I'll keep it in mind, Professor." Harry said wondering whether or not Daphne's warnings about people losing themselves in the Arts and Dumbledore's explanations could be linked together. They probably could be and it was true that for him casting the spells felt nice, but he wouldn't actually describe it with a strong word such as addicting. Just nice and maybe a bit distracting.

"Now that much of that is behind us, is there something else you might want to ask?" Dumbledore said smiling again, making his long beard move a bit.

Harry nodded in confirmation to the question. "Sir, It's been quite some time since we last viewed a memory, are you having trouble with collecting new ones?"

"I do, unfortunately have some difficulties, yes. However I estimate that I will have another memory ready sometime after the Christmas holidays." He replied as he lightly stroked his beard in thought with his hand.

"And after that one we still need to view more? It would only be after we viewed all the memories that you would tell me more about Voldemort's soul anchoring right?" Harry asked a bit impatiently as he brought up the subject again which he had been stranded on for some time now due to the lack of information in Hogwarts.

The Headmaster however, didn't budge again. "You are correct, Harry, I will not tell you until then, the memories are essential to both support my theory and explanations."

Harry sighed a bit as he got the same result as last time. Sure he found the memories interesting, but they only seemed to serve for slowing things down. He wanted Dumbledore to tell him more about the magic that Voldemort used on himself to bind his soul to the earth. Watching the last memories would take weeks or months if he was to understand the Headmaster.

His only option to speed things up was to look into Daphne's book and hope that it offered some kind of breakthrough. He could then figure out more things from there and confront Dumbledore about it for answers.

"It seems that our available time has come to an end, Harry." Dumbledore said as he gestured with his hand to the nearby window that showed the dark castle grounds and star filled sky outside. "We have more to discuss however, so I wish to speak with you again somewhere in the near future."

"Sure." Harry said in agreement, giving a nod of his head. He could've sword that he had just seen Dumbledore's hand pass right through the quill that stood atop his desk in a ink jar when he had gestured to the window. The quill hadn't even wobbled or moved when his hand passed and Harry began wondering whether or not he was just seeing things.

Dumbledore smiled with twinkling eyes. "Excellent, a mutual agreement then."

"Sir, one question before I leave. Your right hand... Is something wrong with it?" Harry asked too curious to leave his question unanswered. Dumbledore's hand looked completely fine but he couldn't help but notice how he kept using his left and seemingly refused to use his other hand throughout the entire evening. As if he couldn't use it. "All evening you seem confused about using your right hand and always stop to use your left hand instead, never your right hand. It's become quite strange to see."

"Oh, this one?" He said nonchalantly, raising the hand in question to which he nodded.

"Well, I was hoping that I didn't need to tell you just yet but I seem to have already been discovered. I should really start on getting used to it but my body still seems to be in denial after having had it for all these long years..." Dumbledore answered, making Harry wonder what he was talking about but refrained himself from speaking up as he continued.

"But yes, you are correct, Harry. There is something wrong with my right hand, no forget that, rather than saying that something is wrong I should say that nothing is wrong at all. For you see... I don't have it anymore." The Headmaster said calmly as he lifted his hand slowly again, after which it seemed to shimmer before disappearing altogether, leaving a round stump in its place where his hand and top of his wrist had been seconds before. "What you saw until now has been a creative illusion Charm of myself. I wear it merely as to not cause unnecessary panic or controversy. Both the public and our adversaries would react negatively if they were to know that one of Voldemort's top antagonists had lost a hand. Luckily I don't come out into the public that often anymore making it less noticeable."

Harry stopped listening however as he gaped and stared in shock at the spot where his hand had been moments before. The stump was round, smooth and bald with slightly pink skin showing that it was still sensitive and healing. A bald man's head was probably the best example to describe it with.

"Professor." He began after looking away from the stump and back to the Headmaster's face. "I would definitely classify that as something being wrong. What happened for you to lose your hand?"

"Marvolo's Ring happened. You have likely noticed that the Ring is no longer here. That is because it has been successfully destroyed by the combined effort of myself and Severus. Much of it didn't go as planned however, as I was sorely tempted by its Dark magic as soon as I removed the protective case which contained it and tried to destroy the ring… Yes, so very tempted and disillusioned that I put on the Ring in an act of pure foolishness." Dumbledore explained slowly, mulling over his actions before picking up again. "I was immediately struck by the Curse that it wielded. Had it not been, and forgive me for a lack of modesty, for my own prodigious skills to deflect the damage long enough and Professor Snape's timely response, I might not have lived to tell the tale."

Harry however, bit back a remark about Snape. He didn't see the man as much of a savior as Dumbledore did. Snape might as well have known a solution to the curse in the instant he saw it but could've decided to lie against Dumbledore so that he could remove his hand and permanently cripple him. it would surely be a move Voldemort could appreciate... Harry didn't voice this out loud however, as the Headmaster had already expressed his complete faith in the greasy bitter man multiple times. Contrary to Harry's beliefs since he found the spy's true loyalties to be unclear at best. He stopped his train of thought however as a new, worrisome realization struck him.

"Did this whole incident happen to be shortly after the first Hogsmeade trip and the accident with Katie?" Harry asked trying to sound calm but feeling an underlying anxiety build up in his stomach as he waited for the answer.

Dumbledore in turn looked surprised at his question and leaned forward a bit. "It did actually, how did you happen to guess it so accurately? Not many have been informed about this."

Harry didn't immediately answer, instead he stood still for a moment in realization of multiple things before catching himself and replying. "S- _Professor_ Snape found me after I had passed out from one of my practice sessions. Fawkes came flying toward us not too long after that and handed Professor Snape a note; your note. He ran toward your office in a slight panic after reading it. I just connected one and two." Harry said with a frail smile, choosing to go with the same small lie he had told Snape to explain his reason for being unconscious. He couldn't just tell that he had been struck by some dark shade. Especially now that he had an alarming feeling that he knew what it had been precisely…

"Very perceptive of you." Dumbledore said slowly with an inquisitive look. "But please do be careful with how hard you push yourself. Passing out from exhaustion shows your dedication but isn't all that much of a good thing for your body."

"Of course, Professor. It was a one-time thing only." Harry said as he rose from his seat, having asked his last question and preparing to leave.

Dumbledore nodded and waved his wand, letting his illusionary hand shimmer into existence again. "Until next time, Harry. Goodnight."

After exiting the office and shutting the door behind him with a goodbye, he slowly descended the spiral staircase, mechanically feeling his legs carry him as he was lost in his own world. Multiple thoughts whirling around in his head as one after the next revelation unfurled from his conversation with Dumbledore.

His explanation about falling unconscious from exhaustion during his training had been a lie, he hadn't overworked himself at the time, it had been some kind of dark shade that had struck him in one of the corridors, knocking him out as intense pain scorched through him… The entity later explained this shade-or wraith as he called it, to be from a Dark artifact that had been destroyed and then absorbed by them.

Dumbledore admitted to having destroyed Marvolo's Ring shortly after the first Hogsmeade weekend, while Harry also had been struck by the wraith around that time... Snape getting the note from Fawkes had been a plea from Dumbledore to come help him in his office to save himself from the Curse of the Ring. Proving that the attack of the wraith and the destruction of the Ring had been on the same night.

Harry had already asked the entity what the supposed artifact had been but it wouldn't tell him more without getting something for it in return. Harry had refused at the time and it was now, weeks later that he knew what had happened that night and what the artifact had been.

Dumbledore had destroyed the ring that evening, the Dark magic must have escaped somehow, manifested and struck Harry after finding him in the hallway, rendering him unconscious and causing Snape to find him later on. Shortly after that night he had noticed that his spells had become more powerful, which the entity explained to be from the powers they absorbed from a Dark artifact. The same artifact which would coincidentally lead to his awakening of the Gift.

He didn't know what to think about these discoveries nor the fact that the powers he absorbed had been sinister enough to take Dumbledore's hand, or even his life if he hadn't been one of the most powerful wizards alive..

He sighed and rubbed between his eyes with his thumb and index finger. The fact that the whispers of the entity always managed to help him one way or the other was also something he didn't like all that much. It was true that he had won by listening but look where it had gotten him afterward.. He just didn't trust it for one bit..

"Password?" Was what the Fat Lady impatiently asked when he arrived at the portrait and simply kept quiet, too much in thought.

"Oh, uh." He began needing a moment to switch thoughts before remembering the recently changed password.

"Martyr."

* * *

**BOOM! Long chapter, new record... phew, could have split it into two chapters, which would have been better strategically seen (more updates equals more views/subs) but simply decided not to and won't do so in the future either. This way the chapter is a mixture of some action/info instead of one huge info dump chapter later on. **

**I'm not really into the idea of becoming a fic with a big following anyway. (Couldn't even become one even if I tried! Ha!) it's enough if the people that do read and follow it are enjoying themselves like I am.**

**Par76****: ****Implemented a bit of reflection on Harry's part in re****gard to his entity meetings at the start of chapt 11 and 18. Felt that it lacked a bit and will probably revisit it at the end of the story to improve it more there.**

**exzachly3****: Added it to my ****_to do list_**** when this is all done, thanks for letting me know, saw that it was the case for more people so I can completely agree there. :P**

**UltimateTouken****: Yeah, found love to be a bit strong of a word to use already. And here is a bit of maiming for you.**

**Agnew****: She plans to come back in full swing now that she got the ball**

**trispectrum****: I too look forward to getting to work with those elements.**

**Next chapter we retrieve the book, but easier said than done, right?**

**Also.. did we just have our first Daphne free chapter!? Blasphemy!**

**There was also an old game reference here, simply because it instantly came to me and found it to be very fitting here.**

**Lemme know what you think of this chapter?**

**References: **

**"****And now that we are on the topic of advice; did you listen to my mine? The atmosphere was a bit tense, last time I saw you two in class...": chapt 17 **

**Marvolo's Ring was no longer on Dumbledore's desk: chapt 2+6**

**"****My first experience with the Breaking Curse was a good one and continued to be after that.": chapt 7+9**

**Snape getting the note from Fawkes had been a plea from Dumbledore whom had destroyed the ring that evening, the Dark magic must have escaped somehow, manifested and struck Harry after finding him in the hallway, rendering him unconscious and causing Snape to find him later on: chapt 7**

**Shortly after that night he had noticed that his spells had become more powerful: chap 9**

**The Headmaster however, didn't budge again. "You are correct, Harry, I will not tell you until then, the memories are essential to both support my theory and explanations.": chap 6**

**There were a few more refs but they weren't that important so I left it with this.**


	21. Procrastinating and Walter the Bomb Owl

**Disclaimer: The Harry Potter Universe and all the characters belong to J.K. Rowling.**

* * *

Harry's footsteps softly echoed in the hallways and he started slowing down after seeing that he was close to his destination.

He had immediately been pelted with questions from his friends, especially Hermione after returning from the Headmaster's office. He told them what the spells were that he had used against Nott which managed to brutally smash both his shield and hand.

While surprised and slightly shocked that he knew of the Breaking Curses, they didn't ask much more questions after that, which surprised him for a moment before realizing that they had probably only seen him after hearing Nott's scream of pain. Likely making them think that Nott's injury had happened in their duel instead of cold punishment handed out by him.

Harry also rather kept it at that and made no move to correct them on it, and speaking of Nott; he hoped that the bastard's hand healed slowly or at least with some extra pain, but he doubted that thought if Pomfrey was involved.

Luckily Luna had already been discharged the next morning, already talking about Wrackspurts to a skeptical Hermione when they briefly met again in the Great Hall, to her it was as if nothing ever happened. Harry however, wasn't one to easily forgive or forget..

Harry opened the door with a prepared mind, both for his likely to come conversations with Daphne as well as their Occlumency practice.

He wondered if Daphne had a hard time at the supplementary lesson because of his recent duel with Nott and the others, it must've been harder than usual to keep track of all the things in the hall with an instructor missing..

Inside the classroom was Daphne, standing close to a window, one of her hands on the windowsill and the other resting on the cold glass of the window itself. Silently taking in the scenery outside of the frost covered school grounds and eerie forests as the sun started to cast long shadows in its descend.

"You like taking in sceneries?" He asked closing the door behind him with a click.

She turned away from the window after he spoke, leaving a hand imprint behind on the chilly glass, before replacing the calm gaze she previously had with a frown as she started walking to close the distance between them.

"Harry!"

"Sorry that I couldn't help out with the supplementary lesson. Especially since you didn't even know why I was gone in the first place." He said apologetically when she stopped in front of him.

"Who cares about the lesson!" Daphne brushed off quickly before trapping him with her accusing blue eyes. "You had me worried the whole time during the lesson. At first I just thought that you were going to be late again but I got a bad feeling when I noticed that your friends also weren't going to show up either. It was near the end of the lesson that Neville came to tell me of what happened. Couldn't you come tell me yourself instead having to let me wait until now to talk to you in person?"

He carefully tried to give her an disarming smile as he gestured with his hands. "I couldn't really help it, Professor McGonagall immediately brought me to Dumbledore to discuss various things after Pomfrey healed me. Today wasn't much good either, we didn't have any classes together and during the meals we are in the Great Hall with everyone else."

"Well it is about time we drop the stuff of having to be separate in the Great Hall anyway, it's only a matter of time, might as well do it earlier than later." She said losing her frown for a more pleasant expression after hearing him out.

He looked back at her and now was the one who donned a frown. "Are you sure? People will most likely give us more attention-give _you_ more attention."

"They won't be all that shocked, students had already started spreading rumors of us being in a relationship after our first supplementary lesson. They would only be seeing confirmation of things they already speculated about like the little sheep that they are." Daphne said waving the problem away with her hand. "And it doesn't matter even if they do care, because I simply don't. I have better things to concern myself with."

He shook his head with a smile. Daphne really cared little about what other people thought or did. The people that were important or close to her were the only ones that mattered to Daphne. You could say that maybe it was a bit cold and selfish but it only made you feel more special if you were one of those few people she cared about.

"You're right, it's only an hindrance, we might as well get it over with." Harry agreed, she was right in saying that it had already started circulating around the castle since then. They might as well get it out of the way now. The only downside was how some _certain_ Slytherins in particular might react to it.

"Well, of course I'm right." Daphne said crossing her arms and sounding satisfied at the developments.

"Do keep an out for Nott, Malfoy and others like them though. They might come pester you again because of it." He said warningly to her optimism, he hated not being able to be there and keep watch of things himself. That there was this barrier between them at times in which he couldn't hear or see anything from behind.

Daphne in response seemed to take his words seriously as she lost some of her positivity in return.

"Don't worry, we'll just have to see what happens and _if_ anything happens, besides I have Tracey in there, and we like to fight dirty." She said with a promising look in her eyes, before slowly putting her hand on his chest with a more gentle expression. "Speaking of those guys, how is your chest? Was it easy to mend? Nothing permanent left, right? Oh, and Lovegood too of course, is she also alright?"

He smiled at her concern and rested his own hand atop hers. "We're perfectly fine, for me it was just a rib. A spell, potion and some complaints from Madam Pomfrey was all it took to fix it. Luna also recovered after spending a night there."

She nodded but didn't look relieved, instead her expression became stormy as her hand lightly began to grip his chest.

"I'm sure that he'll think twice next time he tries anything against you. He still had trouble using his hand today and it looked to be painful, I guess that healing bones which have been completely splintered take some time to melt together again." She said with a vindictive tone and narrowed eyes as she moved closer to him until they were face to face. "And if not we'll do worse next time. Maybe break his jaw too, that should put a stop to his gibbering bullshit from pouring out."

He gave a slightly nervous laugh at her sudden viciousness and looked away from the blue eyes that said she would be his partner in crime any time of the day. "Should I also start watching out? Maybe write a will or something?"

She lightly laughed and used her hand to turn his face back to hers, showing him an innocent smile again.

"I don't see why you would need to, Harry. All you have to do is to treat me like you are supposed to and there will be no trouble for you." She said sweetly as she looked into his eyes.

"I should treat you like royalty then?" He asked raising an eyebrow.

"That much is obvious already." Daphne said slowly letting that devilish smile grow on her lips again. "There's another that recently joined however, can you guess it?"

"Uh, future criminal?" He wildly guessed, already envisioning Nott being attacked by her.

"Wrong." She said with a misleading smile, pinching him sharply with the hand that was still on his chest, ignoring his yelp as she continued to speak. "But me being the forgiving and helpful person that I am will give you the answer; the answer was girlfriend of course. From now on you are also supposed to treat me as your girlfriend, something you already should have been doing in the first place but I can overlook that mistake too."

"Yes of course. That much is a given.." He said as he itched for some payback, but refrained himself from doing so lest he start an all-out war.

"Doesn't seem like it if you answer differently though." Daphne said innocently, lightly tilting her head to the side in question before grinning again. "Next question, and you better get this one right; what do couples usually do when they greet each other?"

Oh, he had seen enough of that in Hogwarts already as couples fell into each other's arms with slobbering kisses each time they saw the other and had to depart again shortly after, only to repeat the whole process five minutes later. The only known means of preventing this being a Teacher in the near vicinity… or being a prefect like Percy had been.

"They, uh, you know.. kiss." Harry said instantly becoming aware of her attractive lips as soon as the words came out, swallowing subconsciously in reaction.

"Correct." Daphne said encouragingly. "You now see what went wrong after you entered?"

He felt his eyebrows rise up a bit. "We immediately started talking, there was no time for that even if I did think about it."

"Then you just should have silenced me with a kiss." Daphne quickly replied closing the distance so that their noses nearly touched before continuing in a feather light tone. "I wouldn't have complained about it, trust me."

"Uhuh." He dumbly replied, feeling her hand lightly grab the collar of his shirt while his came to hold her sides.

"Come on then." Daphne breathed teasingly, luring him in with sapphire eyes. "You can still amend your mistake."

He felt his face grow warm as his embarrassment rose from being on the spot so much but nevertheless came to hold her side and back as she lightly wet her lips in response.

"Always such a roundabout way with you." He muttered, coming closer to her lips but finding himself unable to break eye contact as her mesmerizing eyes seemed to guide him toward her.

"Easy is no fun, Harry." She whispered against his lips before he shut her up.

Sweet. Soft. That was how he had remembered her lips to be in their first and second kiss. Their third had that too but then also more, he could almost taste something magnetic and tempting in her kiss that steadily began to grow hotter as their eyes closed themselves.

Their lips briefly broke apart and he felt her warm breath wash over him before she inhaled again and pulled him back with the ever present grip on his shirt, as if afraid that he would stop before she wanted to. Truth was however, that he doubted he ever wanted get away from her with the way she occasionally tugged on his lips with her own and pressed her body closer to his.

She moaned softly when he did the same to her and leaned into him more, causing him to take a few steps back until he softly hit the wall behind him. Her arms soon came to encircle his neck as he slowly ran his own down her back, hoping it to be safe and pleasing to her.

Eventually, their kisses began to slow and decrease until she moved to rest her head on his chest to catch her breath for a moment.

"Am I really going to greet you like that every time?" He said dazedly after a few breaths, feeling his heart hammer from the moment, making him wonder if Daphne could hear him over the sound of it.

"Fine with me. I guess that it wasn't so bad." She said mirthfully before lifting her head and tucking a stray strand of hair back into place that dangled in front of her face.

"And I could easily hear that you thought so too." Daphne said grinning, referring to his heartbeat.

"Yeah." He said lamely before clearing his throat to get himself together. "So, uh, Occlumency, right?"

"Yes, we should at least try to get something done there, it being the whole point of this meeting and all. Although I can understand that you might lose control of your urges again and suddenly decide to grab me for another kiss." She said flashing her devilish grin again before giving an deliberately arrogant swish of her blonde hair. "That's completely reasonable with someone as irresistible as me, so I wouldn't hold it against you."

He loudly snorted and soon began to openly laugh at her. Not mockingly or sarcastically but light and genuine. It wasn't the first time he saw her like this but he just couldn't help it, the stance, the tone, the words, and the light feeling that her kisses had left him with added up to some kind of weightless feeling that was undeniable.

"It's not funny.." Daphne said with a serious expression but soon began to smile as well when he couldn't stop, even when she silently drew her wand.

"You better stop laughing soon if you don't want to regret it, Potter." She said with a now dangerous smile as she gave him multiple wand pokes to his sides, only adding more to his laughter.

"I-I can't, D-Daphne you have-e you st-stop po-po-poking!" He tried to gasp out between his laughter.

"You need to speak up more clearly or I won't be able to understand you." Daphne said mercilessly, poking him at her leisure.

He didn't have a response however as he needed all the air he could get for his body and tried his best to control his now hurting stomach. The only thing keeping him upright being the wall behind him he now used for support.

Alarm bells started ringing however as he saw a glint in her eyes when he managed to steady himself somewhat.

"It's rude to laugh at your girlfriend for no reason, Harry. But don't worry I'm here to help teach you some manners."

It was the glint of a cruel punishment.

* * *

"I zaid dat I was sowry Aphne.." Harry mumbled for the tenth time. The reason of his verbal butchering of pretty much every word he said being caused by the fact that both of his hands were tightly stuck to his cheeks through the use of Sticking Charms.

"Oh, I know. There is nothing to apologize for." Daphne said with some of her own laughter as she sat beside him on the couch. "I just suddenly thought that this would be incredibly funny to see and hear.. Turns out that I was right."

He tried to give her an exasperated look but probably failed miserably as she laughed again.

"Pwease? An we et erious ow an swart pwactising?"

"Mumbling is so ungentlemanly, Harry.. here let me help you." She said finally undoing the Charm with a flick of her wand. "Now what did you say again?"

He gratefully removed his hands from his face and flexed his jaw and hands before deciding that he would be the better of the two and refrain of getting back at her.

"I was trying to ask whether or not we could get serious now and start practicing Occlumency."

"Oh, yeah sure, why didn't you speak more clearly then." Daphne said as if she had no hand in it. "Can't expect a girl to understand if you sound like an ogre."

Withholding a comment about ogres himself, he moved himself in a more active and ready position on the couch, signaling that he was ready to get started.

"So, how long do you think it will be until my shields are sufficient?" He asked wondering whether or not they were nearly done. In the past few lessons he found himself to be quite capable of fending off her attacks, and Daphne was by no means unskilled in Legilimency, rather talented actually as he could easily compare the strength of her attacks to those of Snape. Not that he wanted to give that miserable man a compliment but..

"Judging from our previous lessons, I would say that tonight just might be the last one, you've come a long way since our first lesson and your shields can take a good beating now, it'll be more than enough to expand upon with Somniamency." She answered. "Speaking of which; how are things coming along there? Did you find some kind of exercise in the book I gave you?"

"I Still have a way to go but I recently found one that I understood." He said nodding in response to the things she said. "It's an exercise where I have to think about the memories that plague me the most, and then think about good memories or positive subjects that lie close to it. The good and the bad memories may differ from each other if there is no choice but it would be the most effective if they are from the same."

It was an exercise Harry had started doing recently and while depressing at first, it became easier as he kept trying. He still had plenty of trouble with memories from the ministry, the graveyard, and Sirius, but the others like those of his parents and earlier school years had become better by learning to think about the positive moments that happened before, after, or even during those events.

He had also noticed that doing this exercise already lessened his nightmares somewhat, giving him plenty of motivation to continue doing it as best as he could every evening before he went to sleep.

Daphne looked thoughtful as she took in his explanation, idly twirling a lock of hair before replying. "So I'm correct is saying that; with Occlumency you set yourself aside from the sorrow and happiness that the memories bring by letting go off the thoughts and emotions, but with Somniamency you need to use memories that bring pleasant and calming emotions to counter the unsettling memories and feelings, and like you said; it's the most effective when a single memory is used for both the happy and unhappy sides?"

"Yes, memories who can give you both happy and unhappy feelings are the best because you are then forced to completely turn it around and balance things out. Basically it's all about learning to confront and control the memories and feelings that are associated with them, rather than letting go as is done with Occlumency." Harry said in response before frowning a bit again and continuing. "That's the first part and I should be able to do it successfully after some time, but.."

"But what?" Daphne asked curiously, leaning forward in anticipation.

"But like I said earlier; It's only an exercise, a preparation for the real test. And I'm likely going to need your help again for that." He said frowning a bit.

She got a questioning look in response. "Sure, what is it that I need to help you with then?"

"There is a spell in the book… and I need you to use it on me, because it works similar to learning Occlumency, in the sense that you need to use Legilimency."

"Okay.. and what will the spell do? I don't suppose you are meant to fight me off when learning to deal with your own memories." Daphne asked raising her eyebrows slightly.

"The spell forces the victim to relive their worst memories, it will be similar to a Pensive.. except that it'll be full of nightmares." Harry said smiling grimly. "The goal is that I apply the same principle of the exercise during the spell."

"That's quite brutal.. I don't want to discourage you but It will probably be hard to do." Daphne slowly said in a gentle tone. "For both of us.. I'm not going to enjoy those sessions if I have to do those things to you."

"I know.." He said letting out a deep sigh at the prospect. "Thinking about the memories and using more happy ones during the exercise is one thing, but vividly reliving the moment and then trying to do the same will be something else entirely."

"But don't worry too much, Harry. I said that it would be hard, I won't lie about that but it's not impossible." She said before leaning into him and lacing her fingers into his, giving it an reassuring squeeze. "Remember; any problem that lies before us is solvable."

He looked back at her and smiled at her confidence.

"See? It's settled then, the upcoming Christmas break will be a great moment to start when you come over! In the meantime you can finish up with that exercise." Daphne said smiling.

"Yeah.. Come over?" He asked after her words went through him again.

"Yes. Come over. You're not spending the whole break somewhere else, silly. You'll be meeting my parents of course! I could already introduce you to my sister but I'll just let her wait until then. That'll teach her for her teasing me nonstop the past week.." Daphne said trailing off into other things.

"Hey, you listening?" She asked nudging him awake as the word 'parents' had started repeating itself a few times in his head after she said it.

"Yeah! I'm fine." He said a bit too energetically before continuing in a more collected voice. "I'll have to ask Dumbledore however.. I can't just walk off without others knowing. There are also the Weasleys who expect me to be with them during Christmas."

Daphne frowned at the complications and huffed. "Just a few days will be enough.. And I'll simply come kidnap you if he disagrees or anyone else disagrees. I'm entitled to."

He grinned at her. "You won't be able to kidnap me since I would be cooperating with you, it'll be an elope… but maybe you could also stay for a bit with the Weasleys?"

She got a bit of a sour face in response which didn't surprise him all that much. It wasn't like she disliked the Weasleys themselves but Daphne simply wasn't a fan of getting to know more people in general . She had been the same with Hermione.

"Please? It'll be a good moment to let you meet everyone." He said doing his best to give her a pleading expression, continuing when he saw her begin to give in. "The Weasleys have been looking after me as soon as I started Hogwarts. They're basically like family to me."

Her expression softened at the last part and she sighed in defeat.

"Of course I'll come over, Harry. That is, if they're okay with it."

Molly instantly came to mind and he began to wonder if they were going to end up in the same situation as Bill and fleur..

* * *

Harry sat at the fireplace later that night, tapping his inked quill on the empty parchment in his lap, making dots as he tried to put his thoughts and ideas into words of his messy handwriting.

He wasn't busy with his research notes for Voldemort's anchoring, he had no new information to work with and was still waiting for the reply Daphne would hear from her parents.

It also wasn't a some kind of essay either. He was doing good at keeping up with his homework, even Ron had started improving on that area. Harry guessed that it was probably so that he could please Hermione a bit.

No he was thinking about something entirely different, namely about how to ask Daphne to the party. Something he had been postponing for quite some time now… which wasn't all that new to him either as it had been the same with Cho during the Yule ball. The party was only two and a half weeks away he needed to hurry up and think of something good and fast..

She probably wants something special, grand and fancy... But then again, Daphne had showed him moments were a few words and actions had been enough to please her. She might also like it simple and direct if he were to follow that thought.

Seriousness would be surely one of the things she would want to have, Daphne always wanted a serious and honest answer out of him during moments like that. Being aloof or whimsical about it would surely fall in the wrong taste with her.

Privacy would surely be one of the things he would implement, if not purely for himself to make the entire situation possible in the first place. He couldn't do things like that if everyone were to watch his every move. Luckily Daphne wasn't one to stick in a giggling fan girl glob so he was already lucky on that part.

What else did Slughorn say Harry thought, trying hard to remember their strange conversation, finding it ironic that he now tried to follow the advice of the same man he previously avoided to the best of his ability.

Chivalrous, special, and genuine, those were some other points he had mentioned.

He had no idea how to make it special… he would have to wait and think about that, being genuine should prove to be no problem since this entire thing was entirely optional in the first place.

Chivalrous he thought, repeating the words a few times in his mind to test it. Thinking back on the few occasions he had pulled her up by her hand, held the door and took out a chair for her. The reaction Daphne gave during those moments had always been more than positive as she bloated in her usual pride and smiled at being treated a little differently. Yes, he could be sure about that at least, Daphne would like something in the chivalrous nature.

Great, he had something. Now only to think of something that would please her complicated demands. Maybe it would help if it had to do with something she liked…

* * *

It was the next day at breakfast that he, Neville and Hermione enjoyed their breakfast of some crackers and sandwiches. He couldn't really say however, that Ron was also taking the time to truly enjoy his breakfast as he was already stuffing his face with sausages in the early morning.

Harry really wondered how he could always eat so much in the morning. He himself hardly ate much in the morning and left much of it for supper. He had to give compliments to Ron however, for having improved a bit as he didn't speak with his mouth full recently.. most of the time at least, but maybe those compliments were better meant for Hermione and her likely involvement in it.

He saw Ron look up behind him with alarmed eyes and quickly swallow his mouthful with great difficulty.

"Six o'clock Slytherins approaching." He said before narrowing his eyes as he took a better look at whoever was approaching them. "I think it's Tracey and Greengrass.. What are they coming here for?"

Harry's hand twitched and he crushed the cracker he had just grabbed into little pieces and dust, ignoring Hermione and Neville's curious looks as he grabbed a new one. _I know that I said we might as well get it over with, but not necessarily at the first chance we get! _

He turned his head to see her approaching in a line that was straighter than an arrow with Tracey in tow, looking to be having fun already as she ignored the looks she was beginning to get from being one of the only students that still walked in the Great Hall and the direction she was heading in; the Gryffindor table.

"Maybe she wants to ask you something?" Hermione asked as she looked on with him and the others.

"No, she's just coming because she can." Harry said already getting a bad feeling about this, before shifting his eyes to watch the reactions of some of the Professors at the table. Most of them like McGonagall and Sprout looked on curiously while Dumbledore simply smiled encouragingly.

"Come on, make room, Harry." Daphne said casually after coming to a stop behind him, as if she did this every day.

"Sure.." He said taking a peek before he moved aside to see Snape's face contort in a mixture of disbelief and disgust, evidently not having taken any of the rumors seriously, only to have the truth be thrown right in front of his crooked nose.

"So." Daphne said after she sat down closely next to him, ignoring the plethora of room she had available. "How is everyone doing on this cold and dreary day?"

"Erm... Fine I guess." Ron said slowly after Tracey sat in-between him and Neville.

Silence fell as no follow up came and half the table stared dumbly at them. No one made a move or gave even a sound of hostility against them. They simply stared openly at the fact that Slytherins joined their table in probably… years.

"Psst, Harry.. this is the moment where you introduce us." Tracey whispered to him with a nod as she leaned forward a bit.

"Right." He said mentally face palming at them, himself and the rest of the people in the hall.

"Well most of us already know each other by now so. Hermione, meet Tracey Davis; a new friend of myself. Tracey, meet Hermione Granger; one of the brightest witches in our year." He said introducing them to each other.

"Pleased to meet you, we probably exchanged a few words from time to time in the previous years." Hermione said with a light blush from his compliment as she shook hands with Tracey.

"We did, but it was mostly about lending some ink or quills." Tracey said laughing lightly.

"Now." He said lightly sighing in preparation as he turned to Ron, who seemed to hold true to his change of mind by being quite neutral so far in his behavior.

"Daphne, meet Ron Weasley; my best friend and master chess player. Always feel free to decline any requests to play against him, because he's merciless." He said trying to keep it light and continuing when Ron managed a smile. "Ron, meet Daphne Greengrass; my personal teacher for dancing, Occlumency and potions."

"Ouch!" He called out when he suddenly felt one of her feet hit his calf beneath the table.

"Something wrong?" Neville asked him before the others could.

"No, just a cramp.." He answered dismissively giving Daphne a questioning look as to why he had deserved that but found none as she moved to give Ron a hand.

"Pleased to meet you. I've already heard some things about you from Tracey. Don't worry they're quite positive as of late." She said smiling in a friendly way and shaking his offered hand.

"As of late eh? Well can't really blame her, I was quite a jerk in the beginning.. Harry also told me some things about you. Good things." Ron said with no hostility.

He and Ron grabbed their drinks after that and started gulping it down while the others silently looked on. Tracey however had an expression of pure restraint on her face while out of the corner of his eyes he saw Daphne give him _that_ grin again, causing more than a little worry to rise up within him.

"I'm also his girlfriend by the way."

He and Ron simultaneously choked on their drinks, causing him to violently start coughing out the liquid that had shot into his lungs while Ron spurted some of his drink back into his cup through his nose making Neville next to him lean away.

"And we have a winner!" Tracey said laughing hysterically, throwing her hands up in a cheer as Ron scrambled for some kind of napkin.

"Here, Ron." Hermione said looking a bit surprised herself as she gave him a bunch of napkins which he quickly grabbed to clean himself with.

"Could you not, you know? Drop a bomb every time we are around others? Or alone for that matter." Harry asked after he recovered with a few pats on the back from Neville, feeling ready to smash his plate with his face.

Daphne shrugged uncaringly and grabbed the forgotten cracker from his plate on which he just spend five minutes carefully preparing.

"Not my fault you introduced me incorrectly." She said taking a bite.

He opened and closed his mouth a few times at her _reasoning_ before replying. "Maybe because I wanted to do it a bit more smoothly? You know, in private, without the risk of drowning in my own drink and everyone knowing."

Daphne looked thoughtful for a moment before shaking her head.

"Nah, this is the most effective way to spread the news. You know? To get it over with and all." Daphne said nodding her head toward the murmuring people around them. "And, it's a good way to mark my territory."

"Territory?" He asked incredulously.

"Yes. You. Territory. You're always too distracted to notice but there are plenty of girls who leer at you all day long. Just take a look at Vane's contorted face." Daphne said indicating with her eyes.

He took a quick look out of the corner of his eyes and indeed saw that Romilda was doing a good job of imitating Snape's expression moments ago.

Harry wanted to comment but was stopped when Ron finally recovered and pointed a finger at them with an expression of pure shock.

"The fuck!-"

"RON, language! And stop pointing!" Hermione interrupted, pulling his arm down while Ron ignored her, being much too occupied with staring at them.

"Why? How? Since when?!" He asked flustered, shifting his eyes between the two of them.

Harry groaned a bit at the questions and "I find the why and how a bit silly to answer but it happened shortly after we had that talk during the chess and all just a few days ago."

"Talk?" Daphne asked curiously.

"Nothing special, Daphne." He dismissed calmly, quickly turning bac to Ron.

Ron completely deflated as he got a lost look in his eyes. "That talk.. and I .. and then you.. no way, I actually helped didn't I..?"

"It would have happened regardless, Ron. It eased me a bit, but didn't make a big difference.. if that makes you feel better." Harry said encouragingly, trying to get his friend out of his stupor.

"Yeah, it's fine, it's fine.. I just need some time.. geez mate." Ron said before opting to stare at his plate in thought.

"I think that we broke him." Tracey said leaning forward a bit to inspect his face.

"Yeah." Harry said tentatively as he looked at Hermione and Neville almost expecting them to suddenly lose it too.

"Hey, don't look at me like that. Me and Hermione saw it coming." Neville said raising his hands in defense as Hermione nodded in agreement with a careful smile.

"We're happy for you two, don't mind him, he just needs a moment." Hermione said nudging the redhead. "Right, Ron?"

"Y-yeah. You guys just caught me off guard there… it's fine, just don't start doing all kind of weird things in front of me." Ron said making vague gestures with his hands and a sour face.

"What? Can't handle the truth? Daphne said grinning and grabbing his arm to deliberately hold it against her soft chest for everyone to see, making his face go slightly red while Ron began sputtering again as he became even redder than him while Hermione and Neville merely raised their eyebrows.

"Are you doing this on purpose?!" Ron asked bewildered as Daphne released him again.

"Well, of course." Daphne replied feigning confusion as she frowned at Ron, as if she wondered why he even felt the need to ask such a question.

"The sooner you get used to it the better, Ron. This isn't going to change, and if it does it will only be worse." Tracey said evilly while exchanging a knowing look with Daphne who returned it.

"So uh, tomorrow is another supplementary lesson again, right?" Harry asked trying to change the subject, grabbing a new cracker to put some dressing on.

"Yeah, there is! And a new dance is on the roster if I'm not mistaken." Hermione said looking at him and Daphne for confirmation.

"We do, we will start with the Foxtrot and-" Daphne began but suddenly stopped as they all heard the sound of wings fluttering.

Not a moment later a letter was dropped on top of his newly prepared food with a wet flop, followed by a grey owl that softly landed in front of Daphne.

"I guess you could say that.. another bomb was dropped." Tracey said looking at them expectantly with a grin. "Am I Right?"

"At least it's in an envelope." Neville said trying to make it sound better when Harry let out a sigh.

"Why am I not surprised that it's your owl..." Harry said giving Daphne an exasperated look while the owl let out an aloof sounding hoot, stole a piece of his maimed food and promptly flew off.

"Don't just ignore me!" Tracey called out appalled, only to be ignored once again as Daphne replied to him.

"Sorry, Walter is a bit careless." Daphne said sounding more amused than sorry as she picked the letter up and discarded the food-stained envelop.

Tracey huffed indignantly but nonetheless began to tell about more instances of this happening with Walter. Harry however, wasn't able to follow the story as he spend half of his concentration on watching Daphne read her letter, waiting for some kind of response that would tell him if this was the letter they had been waiting for.

Daphne's eyes rose up from her letter shortly after his thought finished and connected to his with a look of confirmation.

"Slytherin Common room, midnight. Don't worry I still remember how to get there." He whispered to her, schooling his features to prevent himself from grinning.

Daphne gave an imperceptible nod as she whispered her reply. "The password is Birthright."

* * *

**Did I say that we would retrieve the book this chapter? Hm, well I meant to say the _prelude_ to it of course... But really now, sorry if it disappointed you but things turned out longer than I expected. (Geez, again? What a surprise..)**

**I already have a good portion of the actual retrieval done but I thought that you guys would rather have _something_ instead of a longer wait time with a huuuge chapter at the end. In any case chapt 22 should be out in a week or so.**

**Lemme know what you think!**

**capo327: McGonagall reaction. Answer: She hardly saw anything, making it hard for her to justly punish them, but it's true that she probably should have done so even if it was on *Accident* like Malfoy said. Will add it to the -to do list- and change some things about it later on.**

**trispectrum: Is there wizard nobility within your story such as Ancient and Noble Houses, and if so, are the Potters noble? Answer: There are ancient/noble/sacred twenty-eight families to which the Greengrasses belong to, Harry however isn't one of the twenty-eight nor a noble/ancient, he does have a reasonable amount of gold though.**

**sanbeegoldiewhitey: Your Harry, a sixth year barely beat Nott. Answer: Don't want Harry blasting all his opponents away just yet, (kinda boring IMO too) especially since he has only just touched on the surface of his spells in the arts. Nott also isn't any pushover with private dueling lessons and Death Eater daddy to help.**

**References:**

**Harry: What else did Slughorn say Harry thought, trying hard to remember their strange conversation; chapt 16**

**Harry: Maybe it would help if it had to do with something she liked; secret reference, it wasn't in this chapter however if you thought it to be**

**Harry: it happened shortly after we had that talk during the chess and all just a few days ago; chapt 19**


	22. Hide and Seek

**Disclaimer: The Harry Potter Universe and all the characters belong to J.K. Rowling.**

* * *

"Birthright." Harry whispered from beneath his Invisibility Cloak toward the cold stone wall in front of him, watching as it slowly retreated to reveal a downward staircase.

He started the descend, his footsteps barely making any sound as he paid attention to the positioning of his feet and the cloak around him. Tripping on his own cloak wouldn't do him any good…

It didn't take long until he saw some dim light of the common room illuminate part of the stairs at the end of the staircase, which surprised him a bit because apparently the staircase wasn't as long as he remembered it to be, but maybe that was because he had only been twelve at the time since he had last been here to try and discover whether or not Malfoy had been the heir of Slytherin. Not to mention in the heavy body of Goyle. Having grown up quite a lot in the meantime did make quite the difference in his perception.

The Slytherin common room itself however, was exactly as he remembered it to be.

Against the walls stood dark coloured cupboards with various items of snakes, skulls and other ominous objects spread across the room. There were only a few candles lit in the dungeon-like room accompanied by the occasional green lamp that helped spread a greenish glow across the room. The furniture of the room mostly consisted of black and dark green leather sofas.

In one of the sofas near the fireplace sat a single person, fully clothed and with blonde hair hanging loose across her face as she was lightly bend over a book that rested on her lap, probably with the purpose to fool any people who happened to come down at this hour into thinking that she was reading instead of doing nothing in the middle of the night.

"Daphne." He softly called out, watching as she looked up and closed her book.

"Is that you, Harry?" She asked closing her book and putting it on the table in front of her before standing and looking around, trying to find him.

"No, I'm Ron. Of course it's me." He said with slight sarcasm, opening a fold of the Cloak for her to see and enter.

"I wasn't entirely sure for a moment, since didn't hear you come in at all. You're very sneaky you know, it was the same during that time in the classroom." Daphne said with a look as she joined him underneath the cloak and giving him a small kiss.

"Well, I build up some stealth experience in my years here." Harry whispered to her with a small smile as they started moving up the staircase again, holding her waist to help steady and move both of them upward. Doing staircases with the cloak on wasn't all that easy, and doing them with multiple people certainly didn't help with that fact. Daphne however, always seemed to know what he wanted to do without any words being needed to be exchanged and moved accordingly every time, making it a lot easier than he thought it would be.

Those dance lessons really helped in more ways than one.

"Alright, hold the cloak up for a moment. I need to get something out of my pocket." He asked after they came out of the stairs again and into the corridor.

"Sure, good start of our date, Harry. Just let the lady do everything." Daphne immediately complained jokingly, holding up the cloak for them as he reached into the deep pockets of his robe and pulled out the Marauder's Map and his wand.

"Parchment?" Daphne simply asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Not just any parchment. Watch." Harry said tapping the parchment with his wand before reciting the password. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

"Oh, wow." She said in amazement as the previously blank parchment was quickly filled with dancing lines, emerging names and accurate shapes until it formed a detailed map of Hogwarts and everything in their near vicinity.

"It even shows the people and ghosts in Hogwarts?" Daphne asked as she looked at the masses of dots that showed all the sleeping students in their dorms, while a few lone dots of some ghosts and even Teachers patrolled the halls.

"Yeah, even Animagi can be seen with it. It's a very useful item during things like this." Harry said grinning before starting to move again.

"How do you get this stuff?" Daphne asked curiously, gesturing to his cloak and map. "I've never even heard about a map like that existing."

He smiled a bit and gave a small sigh before answering. "Well, the cloak was a gift from my father that Dumbledore passed on to me when I first celebrated Christmas here. The map is also from my father, he and his friends made it together and probably used it for pranks most of the time."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring up any stuff, I just-" Daphne began.

"-No it's fine. I should tell something about myself too once in a while, right?" Harry said smiling apologetically at her. "Besides they're good memories. Not very powerful ones because they're given indirectly but good ones nonetheless. The fact that these items were once worn and used by my own father makes me feel that I have a bit of an connection to him.. If that doesn't sound stupid at least."

She shook her head and leaned closer to him.

"It doesn't sound stupid. Not to me at least." She said softly.

He smiled more genuinely as he relaxed in her warmth, steered them away from some ghosts that suddenly flew out from the wall and led them into a dead end.

"We can get outside through here." Harry said moving them behind a suit of armor and tapping the wall behind it a few times, making the stone slide away to form a dark passageway for them.

They walked through the tunnel for a minute while Daphne used her wand to illuminate it with her Lumos as there were no to little candles inside the tunnel itself.

Behind them the entrance melted together again much like the brick wall of Diagon Alley as soon as they stepped outside onto the school grounds and into the cold, dark night of December.

Harry saw Daphne already give a shudder and pull her robes tighter around her while he too felt goosebumps rise up on his skin from the frigid air.

Harry whispered the closing words to let the map blank itself again before carefully putting it in his pocket again and grabbing Daphne's free hand with his own.

"There's the Whomping Willow. Let's go!" He said pulling her with him as he began a small sprint toward the hulking tree, both in excitement of getting closer to their objective and in the prospect of producing some body heat by moving faster.

"Whoa there!" Daphne called out but quickly moved in line with him. "Are you sure that we don't need the map anymore?"

"I would like to but it's useless in the tunnel and Shrieking Shack, they're too far away from Hogwarts and are not on the map." Harry said seeing both of their breaths come out in white clouds.

"Bummer." Daphne breathed in reply, coming to a stop with him when the steep black hole of the tunnel softly howled at them in echoes of the wind that passed through it.

He offered her his hand and waited with a smile.

"Ladies first."

"My robes are going to get dirty from all that.." Daphne said with a skeptical glance down the hole.

"Don't complain and get in, you should be happy that we're here with a Invisibility cloak. I've had more than enough encounters by now to tell you why it's called the _Whomping_ Willow and not the Friendly Willow." He said with a deliberate look, remembering his clashes with the tree in his second and third year.

"Why did you need to come here then? Been smuggling more items in your school years?" Daphne asked in curiosity as she took his hand and started moving down the hole, carefully searching with her feet for ground and using her other hand to steady herself.

"No, the first time was in second year when I came to Hogwarts with the magical car of Ron's father." Harry answered before moving down the hole himself after waiting a moment, so that he was sure he wouldn't jump down on her.

"Things didn't go that great and we ended crashing into the Willow, pissing it off and earning ourselves a beating in return." He said removing and putting his cloak back in a pocket of his robe once he was down in the safety of the tunnel, out of reach and sight of the Willow, how it was supposed to see them in the first place was an question Harry decided not to think too much about.

He saw and heard Daphne laugh softly in the dim light of her Lumos.

"It's true then? You two seriously came here with a flying car after missing the train? How did you manage to miss the train in the first place?" She asked with a grin and shine of pure curiosity reflecting in her eyes as they started walking through the long, and dark tunnel.

He let out a thinking sound as he wondered where to start the story of Dobby the fanatical house elf.

"Me and Ron missed the train at the time because Dobby; a house elf that served under the Malfoys at the time, sealed the stone entrance to platform 9 ¾ because he knew of the plot to have the Chamber of Secrets reopened and believed me to be in great anger, but even before that he already tried to stop me by using magic near my relatives and even by intercepting my mail in the hopes that I would be angry at my friends for not writing to me and decide to stay home." Harry said shaking his head at the ideas of the elf.

"He sure was fanatical in stopping you." Daphne said with raised eyebrows.

"It didn't even stop there.. You know of that bludger that hit me in second year during the Quidditch match?" Harry asked and continuing when he saw her nod after a moment of thinking back. "That was his last but most dangerous attempt. He spelled the bloody thing to attack me, eventually knocking me off with a broken arm."

"After which Lockhart decided to _help_ you." Daphne said with a restrained grin. "I'm sorry, I can't help it, we could see all the way from the back how your arm turned into some kind of rubber slapstick. Quite hilarious really."

"Good to know that I was already able to entertain you at my own expense.." Harry said with an eyeroll. "I guess you know most of the events that happened after that; the chamber opened, people got petrified, the Basilisk was slain, and I freed Dobby from the Malfoys. He hasn't tried to injure or potentially kill me since then so all is well now with Dobby and me."

Daphne immediately grabbed him by the shoulder, turning him around and halting him, almost thrusting the light of her wand in his face as stared at him in shock.

"The monster was a Basilisk!? Why didn't anyone die from its gaze? People were only getting petrified left and right, that doesn't happen with the gaze of a Basilisk. How do you even know about this? How was it slain? Did the Headmaster do it?" She asked rapidly, reminding him of Hermione as she looked at him with big eyes.

"One at a time, one at a time." Harry asked raising his hands in front of him in a calming gesture to which she listened. A bit.

"People didn't die from its gaze because they were all struck indirectly through some lens, mirror, or water. The ghosts themselves were naturally petrified since they were already dead. I know about all this because I became quite involved in it throughout the year and eventually went to the Chamber of Secrets itself to save someone who was trapped inside by some Dark diary." Harry explained, choosing to keep Ginny's identity a secret before continuing as Daphne seemed to hold her breath in undivided attention. ".. It was there that I slew the Basilisk with the help of Fawkes who gauged its eyes out, and the sorting hat who lent me the sword of Gryffindor. The diary followed shortly after."

"Incredible." Daphne breathed out in awe, letting a small cloud of condense blow against his face. "The fact that you managed to avoid its eyes until then is unbelievable, let alone slay it. Was it still young?"

Harry shrugged, he honestly had no idea how much bigger it could have gotten. "I can't really say, but its head alone was nearly as big as half my twelve year old self if I remember correctly."

"That.. that sounds pretty much as an adult to me." Daphne said stepping back a bit. "And you just.. killed it?"

"I just got lucky and managed to stab it through its head, it wouldn't have been possible without the Hat and Fawkes helping me." Harry said trying to clarify that he hadn't been all that great against the monster.

"Still. It's amazing that you got out of that so well." Daphne said with appraisal in her voice.

"That much is true… Come on I think we're halfway there." Harry answered as he started walking again, deciding not to speak of his potential death by Basilisk venom, he wasn't one to show and talk about his battle scars, he rather hid the grim reminders of his experiences underneath his clothes.

"And the Chamber was also real? Did you fight it there?" She asked.

He nodded in confirmation. "Very much, I'm probably even going to take you there soon. We will need a place that is far away from anyone who might see, hear, or sense anything, if we're going to learn those new spells in the book."

"Ah, yes. The spells.." Daphne trailed off, having looked excited when he spoke about the Chamber, but lost some of it when he mentioned that it was for the spells.

"So what were the other encounters you had with the Willow?" Daphne asked probably hoping to hear more now that she had gotten him to talk. "Because you said that you had multiple experiences with the Whomping Willow and not just one."

"Yeah, I had one more in my third year, when I met my Godfather for the first time, face to face.." Harry said trailing off as memories of Sirius resurfaced.

"You might already have some sort of idea as to who my Godfather might be if you heard the things that I said in Hogsmeade." He said turning to look at her as they walked.

"Sirius Black." Daphne said looking back at him, the white light of her Lumos giving her blue eyes a metallic tinge.

"I had always wondered about it after hearing those things in Hogsmeade from you but refrained from asking any further after that, since it seems to be a hard subject for you to talk about." She said with a gentle smile.

He gave a single solemn nod in response before speaking. "Long story short is that Sirius never was responsible for the death of my parents nor those other Muggles that were caught in the blast, Peter Pettigrew; a friend of them in school, was the one who really betrayed my parents and set him up to take the blame and escaped."

"He spend all those years in Azkaban and he was innocent all along? I can't believe how Black survived that for so long... knowing every day that the real murderer is out there alive and free. One of your own friends nonetheless." Daphne said looking horrified at him.

"He survived but it certainly took its toll, Sirius looked really bad and nearly insane when I first met him, but he recovered quite well in the time that followed." Harry replied, remembering the skeletal like build, sunken ravenous eyes and anxious state his Godfather had been in.

"Then.. what was all that talk about you now owning his possessions if he recovered?" Daphne asked tentatively as if afraid for the answer.

"It's true that Sirius recovered, but he died nonetheless at the end of fifth year." Harry said feeling his face set itself in a stiff expression, almost feeling glad that half of his face was hidden in the long shadows her Lumos cast.

He felt her hand gently open his clenched fist before intertwining her fingers with his in a secure but soft grip.

Her fingers were even colder than his from the low temperatures outside, but still they seemed to spread warmth throughout his body somehow..

"I'm sorry, Harry." She whispered in the dark of the tunnel.

"Don't be. It's not your fault.. it's not yours." Harry replied slowly, applying to same pressure to her hand.

They continued through the tunnel and didn't speak again until they came at the end.

"Through here." Harry said flipping open a couple of boards that made up the floor of the Shrieking Shack before climbing up and holding his hand out to her once he was up.

"Thanks." Daphne said with a small smile as she took his offered hand and helped herself up the hole.

"Okay.." Harry said once they were both on their feet and cleaned some dirt and dust from their robes off.

The shack hadn't changed since his last visit. Dreary, dark, and dusty beyond belief was the theme of the inside with old carpets laid beneath their feet that somewhat damped the intense creaking of the floor. Every wall in sight had scratches, bite marks and holes in it while the wind eerily howled through the house in a soft background noise.

"Not the most romantic place you could have taken me to." Daphne commented jokingly to the depressing atmosphere of the house.

"Sorry, I'll try harder next time. I just thought that it would fit your taste." He said in the same manner.

"What's with all these markings? They seem to be everywhere." Daphne said more to herself than him as she traced one of the markings with her fingers, a layer of dust coming off as she went over it.

"It's from Professor Lupin; he's a werewolf and came here during his school years to lock himself up while he was transformed so that others were safe and so that it would stay a secret from the other students. My father, Sirius, and Pettigrew all became Animagus to stay with him and help him during those nights. Together they formed the Marauders; the same people who made the map you saw earlier." Harry explained looking at one of the long gashes in the wall next to him.

"Wow, it all comes together as quite the history." Daphne said taking it all in. "I never really suspected the Professor for having such a condition when he was at Hogwarts. He was probably the most fair and decent Teacher for DADA we had at Hogwarts in years."

"I think so too." He agreed before gesturing with his head to follow him up the damaged and askew stairs.

"It's probably somewhere upstairs." He said softly already knowing that the floor below them had no open windows for Hedwig to come through in.

"What does it look like actually?" Harry asked as they made their way up, realizing that he actually didn't know what the book looked like or what the title was.

"It's bigger and thicker than your average school book, and has detailed dark red trimmings on it, but is mostly black other than that. It also doesn't have a title on its cover." Daphne answered softly, describing the appearance of the book to him.

Once upstairs they went for the master bedroom first, seeing that it was the only room which actually had an open window after some of the planks that originally obstructed it had rotten and come loose.

Harry stepped around the room a bit and looked near the bed, seeing all kinds of small book piles scattered around the room, some covers looking relatively new and appearing to be in reasonable condition, while others laid open with some of their contents ripped or torn out with the cover being the only thing left that still held it together.

"Should be around here somewhere." Daphne said scanning some of the books on a closet.

They searched for a few moments with no results, and he began to wonder if Hedwig either had hid it too well or failed to deliver it to the Shack somehow until he a saw book on top of a few others that seemed to fit her description.

"I think that this is it." He said grabbing the book and standing up again.

Daphne turned away from the nightstand she had been looked around, and walked over to get a closer look. "I think it's-"

"-Stop right there, Potter! I caught you right in the middle of the act." Sneered a voice that he hadn't expected to hear in the Shrieking Shack of all places.

He and Daphne whirled around to see Snape standing in the door opening, his wand raised and aimed at Harry's chest, the usual cold expression on his face.

"Stand aside Miss Greengrass, Potter and I have business to attend to." Snape said giving her a mere glance before they shot back to him.

"What are _you_ doing here, Snape." Harry asked as his mind reeled, why was Snape here! How did he know that they would be here tonight.. nobody else knew that they would be going. Something.. something had gone wrong.

"I'm here to meet out the justice and punishment that you deserve, because it seems that Mr. Potter thinks yet again that he is smarter than anyone else, more elusive than anyone else and better than anyone else." Snape whispered as he glided over to him, completely disregarding Daphne's presence now as his eyes were fixated on him. "But even the _Chosen One_, as great as he is can be.. _wrong. _A hiding spot and simple Disillusionment Charm is all that it took to prove this._"_

"Can't say that I expected to come across you here, are you also here for some alone time?" Harry asked sarcastically as he glared at the man that tried to make his life miserable from the very moment they met.

"Who would have thought that our wizarding hero would go to such lengths and depths to increase his less than average magical capabilities." Snape continued with a horrible smile as he ignored his sarcastic remark.

Harry hardly ever saw Snape smile but he needed little time to decide that he preferred to look at his sneer.

"What are you talking about?" He asked gripping the book securely in his arms, watching as Daphne slowly moved out of Snape's view, further to the back of the room and quickly but quietly started to look around between the books that were scattered there.

He didn't know what she was doing there but knew that it was probably for the better that he kept Snape's attention on himself. Which shouldn't prove to be much of an challenge..

Snape stepped closer and let his black eyes bore into his as the smile quickly descended to a sneer again.

"Don't play dumb with me, I know why you are here and I will prove it." Snape said before curtly gesturing to the book in Harry's hands with his wand.

"Hand over the book."

"How did you know we would be here." Harry asked making no move to give him the book yet, watching Daphne move around the room searchingly.

"None of your business Potter. Now give it to me." Snape asked more insistently.

He didn't move the book in his arms an inch as he stared back defiantly. "Someone told you, right? You wouldn't have known otherwise. You got tipped."

"I see that you are just as abysmal in following simple instructions as your egocentric father was. Hand it over. Now!" Snape ordered the tip of his hand beginning to glow as his patience was at its end.

Harry glared at greasy man and wondered how he could not melt from the waves of heat that rolled off him before slowly stretching the book out to him, seeing Daphne in the background bending low to look under the bed.

Snape returned the look in earnest and quickly ripped it out of his hands with his own greedy ones, before opening the book at a random page while Daphne came back up with a book that looked much like the one Snape now held but was decorated with more detail of the dark red trimmings

Harry swallowed and tried to ignore the loud beating of his heart as Snape eyes flew over the contents of the pages. Was this just a lookalike he happened to grab? Did Daphne have the real one in her hands?

For a short moment the corner of Snape's mouth twitched before he schooled it and flipped another page, another page, and another one. Until he promptly closed the book and leveled him with his black eyes again in accusation.

"This is not the right book.. Where is it."

Harry did his best to look calm and collected instead of showing relief, while Daphne made to pull out her wand, likely wanting to do something so that she could hide the real one from Snape. "I don't even know what you're talking about, there are plenty of books here-"

"-DON'T!" Snape shouted flinging the book against the wall with a bang, giving Daphne a scare before he continued in a soft tone. "..Don't play dumb with me, Potter. I know why you are here."

"You're here because you blackmailed Greengrass here..." Snape spat out, thrusting a hand behind him in indication, making Daphne freeze for a moment with her wand slightly raised above the book as she was busy shrinking it, before relaxing again when she saw that Snape resolutely kept his eyes on Harry at all times.

"..Threatened her to give you a prized family heirloom.. a book full of the Dark Arts with the intention of bringing it into Hogwarts." He continued.

"Maybe you should pay Madam Pomfrey a visit if you're thinking that I would threaten Daphne into doing anything she wouldn't want. Not to mention what I would want with such a book in the first place." Harry said making full use of his Occlumency as to not to show any change in expression when Daphne dropped the book which was now the size of a diary inside a pocket of her robes.

Snape's face contorted in fury for a moment before he schooled his features again, his wand never lowering itself.

"You would be wise not to insult me, Potter. This is your last chance." Snape hissed in front of his face.

"Sorry, Professor, I didn't want to interrupt you until now but there seems to be an misunderstanding." Daphne said with a smile that was completely out of place with the way they were nearly at each other's throats.

Snape looked at her with narrowed eyes. "..Misunderstanding?"

"Yes, in my confusion of your conversation I came to believe that you and Harry had some kind of history with the book we just found here for some absurd reason, but that doesn't seem to be the case however, as you just threw that notion against the wall."

"I think that you are horribly misinformed, Professor. Harry isn't threatening or blackmailing me in any way, shape or form. Neither are we here to smuggle anything dangerous inside." Daphne said in a gentle and collected voice.

"That doesn't change the fact that Potter has taken you here in the middle of the night to an abandoned shack, breaking more than a few school rules." Snape drawled giving her a puzzled look, finding it hard to understand that she would try to help clear his name.

"And why is that, Potter? Why did you feel the need to take Miss Greengrass to the Shack if there nothing here for you to gain?" Snape asked turning his head again to look down at him through his black and oily hair.

"I- we came for-" Harry began but was supported again when Daphne spoke up, an answer at the ready.

"Well what other reason could there be, Professor Snape.. I find it rather obvious.." Daphne said softly, fumbling with one of the buttons on her robe as she looked to the ground for a moment.

Harry had no idea as to what Daphne meant nor why she was acting all nervous and shy all of a sudden, and had to do his best not to let his confusion show when Snape momentarily looked back at him.

"Be more specific Miss Greengrass." Snape commanded in a much more friendly way than he had done with him.

"W-well, surely you know by now that Harry is my b-boyfriend, and we've known each other for quite some time now, and we came here to.. you know.. make love." Daphne said adding more to the act as she refused to make eye contact with Snape and even added a stutter.

Harry couldn't believe she had just said that to Snape of all people and fell his jaw drop open as Snape's eyes bulged.

The former Potions Master whirled back on him not a second later with a crazed gleam in his eyes as he pressed his hot wand against his chest, and placed a forearm against his throat, forcing him against the wall with a hollow thud while Harry drew his own wand out of his own pocket and pressed it against Snape's abdomen.

"I KNEW IT! You've been feeding her Amortentia! There is no way any girl would have fallen for you Potter, not someone as egocentric and weak as you! You're no better than your father, for all I know he might have done the same to your mother!" Snape shouted looking ready to Curse one of his own students into the infirmary.

"Shut up about my parents!" Harry ground out in fury through his restricted airway, charging a Bone Breaking Curse at the tip of his own wand, wanting to blast the man off of him with it. Consequences merely floating in the background of his head as he glared at Snape's hateful face.

"Expelliarmus!" He heard Daphne hastily call out, ripping Snape's wand out of his hand and making Snape stumble back a few steps, creating some space between them again.

"Control yourself, Greengrass we will have an antidote for you back in the castle!" Snape said in frustration as he was rooted on the spot by multiple wands pointing at him.

"Please calm down, Professor. You'll only end up embarrassing yourself this way. Harry is innocent of your charges." Daphne said all acting gone as she coldly stared at Snape with his wand in her hand and pointing her own wand at him in the other, the colour of a stunner glowing on its tip.

"I am not under the influence of Amortentia, Professor. Surely you know that side effects of the potion are a pale and sickly skin, obsession, and above all; becoming dangerously unstable toward others, specifically those who hurt or threaten their object of affection." Daphne said calmly.

"I do,-" Snape began, but Daphne overrode him.

"-Then you must have come to the conclusion by now, that I am _not_ under any influence. My skin is not a sickly colour, I'm not obsessed with his mere existence, and most important of all, if I had been under its control, I would have attacked you without thought and with the intent to injure you, instead of using a low powered disarming spell to merely separate you two."

Snape eyes gave Daphne a long hard look before he gave a slow nod, to which Harry too, slowly lowered and extinguished his red glowing wand as he reigned his anger in.

"It seems so."

"Good." Daphne said handing him his wand back, which he took with an undefinable gaze.

"Even if you are not under the effects of any sort of love potion, and Potter somehow managed to forge some kind of.. friendship with you, do not believe me convinced of this little charade, he was obviously searching for the book and either grabbed the wrong one on purpose or happened to mistake one of the books here for it once his stupendous side made itself known again." Snape said with a cold look toward him which he returned.

"A mistake that bought himself some time.. but not for long, I'll bring both of you to the Headmaster and will return here myself to search the entire Shack. I will find your book and have it serve as evidence against you, Potter. Now move."

Harry's eyes met Daphne's and he could see that despite her logical thinking and cool behavior, she had found the experience quite adrenaline inducing. Nonetheless it seemed that they had managed to avoid disaster and fool Snape.

"You will also serve three weeks detention with me, Potter, and let's not forget a minus of fifty points from Gryffindor." Snape slowly said in spite, as if he had heard his thoughts.

"Professor, if Harry gets detention then I-" Daphne began but was cut off when Snape spoke in an uninterested tone.

"Silence, Greengrass or I will give him more."

That quickly made her go silent.

* * *

"Wait here. I will go wake the Headmaster." Snape said with displeasure in his voice of having to wake the ancient wizard, before closing the door behind him. Leaving them to wait in front of the doors.

"..Make love in the Shrieking Shack?" Harry asked dryly after a few moments of silence.

Daphne gave a shrug with a sheepish expression. "We needed an alibi for being there, I know that it's not a perfect excuse but it was all I could come up with in the heat of the moment."

"True, I can't even think of anything to say even now. It's embarrassing but the best excuse for such a situation." He said with a small smile, agreeing with her and keeping silent as a minute later the door was opened again by Snape, his eyes silently telling them to get inside.

Harry made sure that his mind was clear and double checked his barriers as they entered the office. He knew that Snape and Dumbledore could read surface thoughts and he had to make sure that none would slip past him if they wanted to keep the book inside Daphne's robe pocket.

Behind his desk was Dumbledore in azure blue robes with countless little stars on it, looking to be imitating the night sky outside. On his head was a pointy but sloppy hat in the same colour and fashion as his robes. Harry wasn't sure whether or not he found the sight bizarre or fitting for such a wizard.

"Lemon Drop?" He asked casually, gesturing toward his bowl of yellow sugar bombs.

"Uh, sure." Daphne said taking one of the offered candies and putting it in her mouth, because she was either nervous and needed some distraction or wanted to be polite.. or maybe because she simply wanted candy. He knew her to be quite notorious for that.

"So, Severus, what is the problem?" Dumbledore asked he made another gesture for Harry and Daphne to take seat while Snape stood rigidly between them.

"As I said; I found Potter and Miss Greengrass tonight in the Shrieking Shack far past their curfew times. And I know for a matter of fact that Potter was there to retrieve a book on the Dark Arts with the intention of smuggling it into Hogwarts." Snape replied in a way that said he didn't like to repeat himself.

Dumbledore leaned back in his chair and raised his hairy eyebrows. "This is quite the troubling news indeed. Is this true, Miss Greengrass, Harry? Were you trying to smuggle any Dark items inside the castle?"

"No." Harry simply said looking Dumbledore straight in the eyes, keeping thoughts and feelings of guilt for directly lying to his mentor away as he waited for him to show either belief or disbelief at his answer.

"Then what were you two doing there then?" Dumbledore asked after a moment of eye contact, his voice an odd mixture of seriousness and lightness.

"We, uh.. you know, wanted to get away from everyone to.. make love." Harry said slowly and with difficulty as he made some nonsensical gestures, not believing that now he was the one to say it.

"Surely you don't fall for this nonsense!" Snape erupted with an expression of restraint. "They announced their.. relationship mere hours ago, You can't expect even the biggest morons in the wizarding world to believe this."

"We were already dating for some time before we announced it of course, it's not like we did it all on the very same day." Daphne interjected with a frown, giving at least a core of truth to their story.

"Calm everyone." Dumbledore said before things got the chance to escalate. "I certainly didn't know you were so up to date with the Hogwarts rumors, Severus, nonetheless it isn't the first time in the history of Hogwarts that students decide to elope for romances. They have given their reasons and now I would like to hear more of yours. What makes you believe that they wanted to bring something like that inside?"

"I knew through my… sources that Potter would be attempting it tonight, thus I traveled to the Shack beforehand and concealed myself in one of the rooms. After their arrival and search through the room I saw Potter grab a book whom I believed to be the item in question. It was however merely a decoy, but I know that the real one must still be in the Shack and I will head back after this to find, and proof it."

"May we know who or what this source exactly is?" Dumbledore asked with a thoughtful look.

"Only in private." Snape curtly replied giving Harry a brief look.

"I see." Said Dumbledore, seeing that Snape wasn't very stretchable. "Then we will do just that; the Shack will be searched through to confirm which story is true. Until then Harry and Greengrass will be treated innocent from these claims and will only be judged by what rules were broken this night."

Snape gave a nod, satisfied with the solution, apparently feeling pretty sure about his case. But Harry knew better than that and had to keep his expression under control, lest he start smirking at Snape in victory as the book he would soon be searching for the whole night had already passed by right beneath his nose in the disguise of one of his own snakes.

"So." Dumbledore began looking at each of them as he lightly stroked his beard a few times. "I would say a minus of twenty-five points for each of the involved houses and a week of detention with your Head of Houses respectively. Being out past curfew isn't smiled upon, especially if said students wander off beyond the safety of the castle. No matter the reason." He finished with an embarrassing wink at them.

"Now that is taken care of, please escort Miss Greengrass to her common room before you go to the Shack, Severus, as I want to discuss a few things with Harry, now that the opportunity has presented itself."

"Come with me, Greengrass." Snape said in a tone of neutrality, before he turned around in a whirl of robes and headed for the door, hardly waiting for her to come with him.

"I'll talk to you tomorrow, Harry, goodnight." Daphne said simply, before she followed her head of House through the doors, a simple goodbye from which he knew that their coming talk would be about more than just casual things.

"Sir, serving the detention with McGonagall will probably be a bit hard since I already got three weeks with Snape." He said looking back to the pajama clad wizard after they were alone.

"Ah, yes. Don't worry about that, you will simply serve four days with McGonagall, I will talk to Severus and set things right." Dumbledore said with a friendly smile.

"Er, I also lost fifty points…" Harry added. He might as well try and put that right as well, he didn't really care for the House Cup, but he did care about the nagging he would get from his House mates since they were quite passionate about it.

"Points that are now restored." Dumbledore said with a wave of his hand. His real hand. "Anything else?"

"No, that was all." Harry replied.

Dumbledore briefly adjusted his sloppy hat as his eyes started twinkling merrily. "I must say that I'm impressed, Harry. I already noticed it during our last meeting but I can say with confidence now that you learned Occlumency and seem to be quite good at it already, am I correct in saying that this was achieved through the guidance of Miss Greengrass? I learned upon my visits there that the whole family is a fan of it."

"Yes, I wouldn't have been able to learn it without Daphne's help." Harry said smiling a bit, although knowing on the inside that Dumbledore asked because he had tried to read his surface thoughts earlier on.

"And you are quite enchanted by her if this elopement is anything to go by from?" Dumbledore asked before gaining somewhat of an serious look and tone again as he continued. "Unless there was an item in the Shack after all?"

"Simply.. enchanted, sir." Harry answered hoping in the back of his mind that Daphne wasn't discovered at the last possible moment by Snape.

"Then that's truly wondrous, it's possible that your feelings for Miss Greengrass allowed you to work harder toward success or even allowed the whole opportunity to arise in the first case. I would like to think that I know you well enough by now to say that you wouldn't have accepted any help from her if you didn't trust or feel right around her." Dumbledore said as the twinkle returned again.

Harry nodded in agreement as he thought back to how their Occlumency started. "Some of that might be true now that I think back on it, although there was a hefty amount of pushing from Daphne's side.. always has been quite frankly."

"Just wonderful, Harry. You know.. in my long years in this world I have seen many kinds of people; mean, selfish, friendly, neutral, cowardly, but I noticed that we all have something in common as humans. And that is the change that love can bring inside ourselves if you allow it to, because love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own. It was beautiful once I saw it, Harry.. but it isn't easy and everything except simple. You can only lay yourself open to the core and step forward, hoping that it had been the right choice." The Headmaster said as he idly tapped one of his gizmos on the desk, making it spin and puff out a few clouds of smoke.

Harry didn't respond to that, he wasn't sure how to, this was probably his first experience with the kind of love that Dumbledore described, he didn't fully understand it yet. Instead he decided that now was probably a good time to ask Dumbledore for the holidays.

"Sir, speaking of.. laying myself open, I would like to take Daphne to Little Whinging.. Private Drive to be exact, just for a day. To show her." Harry said slowly.

"Private Drive? To show her what? You don't have to return yet, Harry, you can stay over with the Weasleys if I'm not mistaken." Dumbledore asked leaning forward slightly as he concentrated on him.

"I know. I just need to show her me. Harry. The boy that suffered a horrible childhood at the hands of his own family!" Harry said a bit heatedly as the volume and strength of his voice increased over the course of his sentence. Quickly growing annoyed at the fact that the person who was responsible for that sat opposite him and had to ask for details.

"Ah, yes, I see. A very brave and understanding thing to do of you." Dumbledore said softly, almost shrinking in on himself as a small reminder of their conversation at the end of his fifth year came back. "That can certainly be arranged."

"I would also like to stay with the Greengrasses for a week or so, so that I can meet her parents." Harry said with a sigh, calming down again.

Dumbledore looked and sounded more reluctant at that as he replied. "I'm not so sure if that is a good idea, Harry. It is possible that another recruiter decides to visit them again during your visit. It would be disastrous if they were to see you in the Greengrass house."

"Recruiters haven't visited them for weeks, even months if I am to believe Daphne, and even if they did show up, I could simply hide somewhere in the house or leave through the fireplace, they will have to be let in and can't just sneak in." Harry countered, feeling ready to fight over it. "Besides.. the children of Death Eaters are here right inside the castle, they could easily pass the information of my relationship over."

"Very thoughtful of you, Harry. But I do not believe such a danger to be present in the castle." Dumbledore replied calmly and dismissively.

Harry didn't continue after his response, he had already expressed his concerns for this, and the Headmaster hadn't believed him, nor did his friends or the other Teachers.. others might think it to be farfetched but he thought otherwise, and wasn't going to change his mind anytime soon.

"One week." Dumbledore said after a moment of contemplation. "There will also be a guard stationed outside of the house to keep additional watch."

"Fine with me." Harry agreed quite satisfied, an outside guard didn't make much of an difference, they simply watched the outside and were basically invisibly.. at least that was what they were supposed to be. Harry thought thinking back on his encounter with Tonks on Privet Drive.

"So then, are we both ready to retire for bed again? I was having quite a good dream actually." Dumbledore asked with a smile again. "I can assume that you have the required items to return to your dorm, unseen?"

"Yes, nothing new to me, Professor." He said standing up and reaching into the deep pocket of his robe to retrieve his Cloak.

"Excellent! Then I wish you goodnight, Harry." Dumbledore said merrily, extinguishing the lights in his office with a wave of his hand.

"Goodnight." Harry said donning the cloak as soon as the doors of the office closed behind him.

* * *

**Lemme know what you think!**

**Thanks for voting in the poll, good to know that nearly everyone would like to see Daphne pov's. **

**trispectrum: did Harry inherit headship of the Black family from Sirius? Answer: No, that part stays pretty much canon, meaning that the family line ended because Harry wasn't eligible and could only gain his possesions, Draco was left out through his will, Bellatrix invalidated by her murdering him, and Adromeda being disowned.**

**Renata MM: True, mentioned it more as a general direction as to who the pure-blood families are. Although I didn't know about Garrick x)**

**area808code: Can't wait to see what the letter is all about. Answer: The contents in the letter are just made up by her parents, and merely serves to let them know that Hedwig delivered the book at the Shack. (Details in chapt 17)**

**Atlasrom: Dragging the whole thing too much. Answer: Sorry, just the way my pacing is. However, we got the book in this chapter and the next will feature the true beginning of the Arts.**

**Next chapter: Opening and making use of the book. Daphne pov **

**References:**

**Daphne: "You're very sneaky you know, it was the same during that time in the classroom.": chapt 15**


	23. Exploring The Depths and Seeing Signs

**Disclaimer: The Harry Potter Universe and all the characters belong to J.K. Rowling.**

* * *

Daphne moved through the hallway after coming out of the staircase, and adjusted the book-bag that hung on her shoulder, securely containing her family's tome.

Snape had continued to ask her questions as he brought her back to her dorm, mostly trying to directly find out more about the book, and her apparently near impossible relationship with Harry. The idea of her being in a real, and honest relationship seemingly being more absurd to him than dancing Trolls in the Great Hall.

Daphne hadn't told him anything new or truthful except for when he asked about Harry, being very open and free on her opinion of the Gryffindor, much to the disgust of her Head of House.

She had also tried to ask Snape who had told him of their rendezvous, but to no avail as the Professor's information remained iron clad between his lips and mind. Daphne wondered who it could have been, and how said person came to know about it, but she hadn't managed to come up with an answer yet through the course of the day as she only had small periods of time to quietly think about it.

Daphne eventually decided to let it rest, and made a mental note to talk with Harry about it to see if he knew more.

Snape obviously hadn't managed to find their book at the Shack, the look on his face and exceptionally sour mood he had the next morning being enough to confirm that thought.

Harry had asked her the same morning to meet him in the girls lavatory on the second-floor after they had their detentions with McGonagall, and Snape, saying that it was the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets!

The idea of the fabled Entrance to the Chamber being located in a girls lavatory was quite ridiculous to her, but she believed it nonetheless after seeing the seriousness in Harry's emerald eyes.

Which brings her to her current time, and situation, namely herself heading toward the lavatory, and Harry with the book her ancestors wrote and invested decades worth of research, spells, ideas, and theories in. Most, if not all of them in the sense and theme of the Dark Arts. She already felt repulsed, and was only carrying it, let alone open and use it extensively..

Daphne watched as a few first years leapt out of the for her with fearful expressions, reminding her to control her features, as her face had probably been a reflection of her thoughts without her noticing.

..She wondered if she had done the right thing by helping Harry recover it, but then again Snape discovering the book would instantly have invoked heavy punishment upon him, which might have resulted in his expelling or extended suspension. Daphne didn't know what would have happened, and didn't want to find out.

Daphne hadn't played much of an role in getting it from her parents either, and merely passed his request on to them in a letter. It had also been Harry, who came up with a way on how to smuggle it inside. She had hardly put in any effort throughout it all and with good reason, the vile book would still be locked away in some kind of vault if it was up to her.

Daphne shook her head as she came to a stop in front of the lavatory door. She was worrying too much.. She had to have more faith in Harry, he merely wanted to get some info, and spells to defend himself. She too wanted that for him. To be safe.

Inside was Harry, standing close to a sink which stood in the middle of the room. He turned around to face her immediately after she had set a foot inside, and gave her a small smile in silent greeting.

"Ok, I'm here, Harry." Daphne said as she came to stand with him by the sink, his broom resting against one of the bathroom stalls nearby, forming somewhat of an odd sight as you didn't see a race-broom inside a lavatory every day. She guessed that he had probably also hid it under his cloak on his way to the bathroom.

"Nobody saw or followed you?" He asked momentarily hesitating, before giving her a quick kiss on the lips.

"No." She answered, smiling at him, and his sweet action, her worries lessening somewhat because of it. "So, where, and why is the entrance located here?"

He gestured to the sink with his hand. "Well, it's right here, and it's probably here because it is closely connected to the pipes that run throughout Hogwarts, which allowed the Basilisk to move through the castle unseen, and the lavatory forms a place you wouldn't exactly expect it to be."

"Well, that's for sure." Daphne said giving her surroundings another skeptical look, dirty mirrors vaguely showing her reflection with a floor underneath her shoes that was covered in stains instead of the pristine white that it once was.

"Just watch." He said moved closer to the tap of the sink as she looked on, curious as to what he was going to do.

"Hasrah." Harry hissed in a tongue that sounded powerful and sinister as he seemed to focus on something that was on the side of the copper tap.

_Parseltongue._ She thought with a small gasp as she recognized the sound from the dueling club in second year, before hastily taking a step back as the sink suddenly moved into action with a grinding sound, and started sinking back in on itself. Leaving behind a large pipe when it stopped moving, and silence fell.

"That certainly is a secret entrance in any case." She said in amazement as she tried to look down the dark hole to see the end or pretty much anything at all.

"Myrtle occasionally comes here, I haven't seen her yet, but I'll ask her to keep silent about this when I do. You know, in case anyone does come here or even decides to talk to her." Harry said gesturing toward one of the toilets for some reason.

Daphne nodded, but it went unseen by him, and she spoke up instead. "Maybe she could even help keep people away.. more than she already does, I mean."

"In any case, let's get going." Harry said with a knowing smile before grabbing his broom from the stall and mounting it.

"Hop on." Harry said simply as he sat ready on his broom, speaking up again as he saw her reluctant look. "It's either this or a slide down a long, dark, slimy tunnel. We have to use the broom either way when we come up again."

She never had been a fan of flying but nodded nonetheless, finding a broom better of a choice than sliding down a dirty tunnel. Besides it wasn't so bad with Harry, Daphne thought with a smile as she moved behind him and tightly held on to him, taking enjoyment in the way his muscles reacted to her touch.

"Let's go." Harry said after clearing his throat, rising up slightly before taking a sharp dive into the dark abyss of the tunnel.

Daphne couldn't help but give a short scream and crush him to her as she could hardly see where they were going except for the small lights of other tunnels that were connected to theirs and rapidly flashed by, Harry however laughed in amusement, seemingly perfectly capable of navigating them through the tunnel at high speed.

The ride took some time despite their speed and she wondered how far down it went, she guessed that it probably went even deeper than the Slytherin common room which was already located beneath the Black Lake.

She noticed that Harry began slowing down, and just when she was about to ask the pipe suddenly leveled out and they shot out of the end into a big, dark stone tunnel.

Harry lowered them to the ground, and Daphne stepped off the broom, onto her slightly unsteady legs, feeling glad to have some kind of footing again.

"That was great, let's never do that again." Daphne said in a tone that was both joking, and serious as she adjusted her bag and checked to see that they hadn't lost the book on the way down.

"I'm afraid that it's going to become a routine." Harry replied his voice echoing through the tunnel as he pulled out his wand and illuminated the dark tunnel with a Lumos. "Come on, it's this way, and don't mind the bones. They're just small animals."

"Bones?" Daphne asked before seeing in the light of his Lumos that her uneven ground had been a hefty collection of bones on the floor. There were so many in fact that she didn't even see the original ground underneath. "..Nevermind, I get it now."

They moved through the tunnels for a short while after that, their footsteps slapping loudly on the wet floor, while Harry likely racking his brain for memories from years ago to get them through the dark maze. Eventually they came upon a collapse of the tunnel, luckily however a hole was open that was big enough for them to get through.

".. This way." Harry said maneuvering though the opening, helping her when it was her turn.

Once through the hole and decently on her feet again she saw a solid wall ahead of them, the light of Harry's wand casting shadows into it, suggesting that figures and shapes were carved into it. Once they moved closer to it did she see that the shapes were detailed snakes, their eyes set with glinting emeralds, reminding her of Harry's.

"Hasrah." He said again in a low hiss, making the serpents on the vault like stone move and slither away from their locked positions with a soft grinding sound until a confident thud echoed from it, and the stone slowly swung open for them.

Harry made a small sweeping gesture as he stepped back. "Ladies first."

Her curiosity spiked and she walked inside into a very long, and dimly lit chamber. A path ran all the way into the darkness with towering statues of serpents alongside it that rose from the water. The water itself seemed to shine with a greenish glow, and casted long, dark shadows on the walls of the Chamber.

"Like the scenery? I hope you do because we're going to spend some time here from now on.." Harry said as he joined her in the room.

"A bit gloomy, and dark for my taste, but we don't have much of a choice, do we?" Daphne asked rhetorically, still looking around.

"You're right, we don't, but maybe I can.." He muttered in thought.

"Sefres." He seemed to hiss out, softly letting it echo before small flames sprang alight in the mouth of each serpent in the chamber, effectively bringing the entire room into vision for them to see.

"Salazar Slytherin." She whispered stunned as the giant head of an old and bearded wizard was now visible at the end of the chamber. "And.. and the basilisk.. Holy shit."

Daphne grabbed his hand, and began to pull him with her as she hurriedly moved toward the stone head, and deceased monster.

She came to a stop at the skeleton of the enormous serpent, and began to closely inspect it. "This basilisk was really old, it must've been here shortly after the school was founded, this entire chamber was made for it by Salazar to live and grow in." Daphne said softly in awe.

"The venom in the fangs is one of the most poisonous and corrosive substances in the world, and will stay potent even after its death, because the venom glands are positioned in each of the fangs themselves instead of the flesh and muscles in the head like normal snakes." She continued as she carefully touched one of the large fangs with her fingers, feeling the sharp and smooth texture. "You could sell it, you know? They're worth a lot. The bones too."

Harry shook his head. "I have a reasonable amount of gold to get around with, I wouldn't even know how to try and go about selling it. You can have it if you want though."

"No, I won't take any of this for myself. This is yours, if you don't feel the need to sell it then that's fine. And now that I think about it, we probably shouldn't either, not right now at least, lest we bring, and notify other people of the Chamber while we're busy in it ourselves... Maybe we could come back some time later, and make a nice trophy out of it?" Daphne asked lightly joking.

"Very true." Harry replied to her possible information leak before smiling with a thoughtful look. "And, yeah, I guess that it would look nice in the front yard." Harry said as a small smile tugged at the corner of his lips before it fell away again for a serious expression that told her enough.

She sighed lightly as she rose from her kneeling position at the skeleton, opened the flap of her bag, and pulled out the shrunken book.

"Just a moment as I enlarge it again, Charms don't work very well on this book." Daphne said as she pulled out her wand and started the Counter spell to her Charm while Harry nodded and also drew his wand.

"Let's get some stuff in here that we will need." He said as he flicked his wand at one of the nearby rocks that had probably come loose from Salazar's head and Transfigured it into a desk before continuing to do the same with other stones for some chairs.

"Here." She simply said, feeling the book slide out of her fingers as he took it from her and laid the first page open on the table.

"'The Greengrass family tome. Created and edited by the following members..'" Harry read aloud before going down the list of her ancestors in the summary that had worked on its creation. "The dates are also listed.. The last and most recent one was not all that long ago, were Aeran and Ethilia your grandparents? They're the last ones mentioned in the book."

Daphne took a seat next to him in the other chair and stared at the names for a moment, before speaking. "Yes. They were. It was passed on to my father, but he didn't even change or add a single word in it. He didn't want anything to do with it."

"I remember you saying that your grandparents were on the Dark side with your father being the first exception in the family line." Harry responded with a nod as he started flipping through the theoretical pages of the book, as if he was looking for something specifically.

"Some of these things are pretty gruesome." Harry commented as he went through the book.

"Many generations, many _interests_.." Daphne said with distaste as headlines of Death, Necromancy, Disease, Mutation, Rituals and warped ideologies went by until he suddenly stopped.

"'Immortality.'" She read out loud as she looked at the first page of the thick section that followed it, before turning to him. "Harry, why would you want to look at that?"

He looked back at her and began to shake his head as he seemingly understood her silent question and explained. "I myself am not interested in it, Daphne. It's.." He began only to trail of as he suddenly looked at her intensely for a moment, and she could practically see though his eyes that he was contemplating something inside of his head which he deemed very serious and important.

"Just take a look at this.." He said finally before bending sideways from his chair to reach into his bag and shift through some papers, and books before coming back up again with a small loose stack of parchment that had his messy handwriting all over it.

"What is it?" Daphne asked as she took the papers from him, and started going through them while trying to find a chronological order, there were drawings in multiple places on the parchment, loosely scattered pieces of text and hints with some reference numbers here and there. It didn't take her very long however, to see what the general gist of the intents were about. There was information everywhere on Ghosts, Death, Undeath, Revival Rituals, and Potions.

"More immortality?" She asked him, looking away from the papers in her hands to give him a questioning look.

"Resurrection to be precise. I've been doing research in resurrection techniques." He said gently taking the papers from her hands and laying them on the table in front of them.

"You know that Voldemort was vanquished in 1983, however he didn't actually die back then, and only had his body destroyed. For eight years he continued to be in a kind of ghostly appearance, bound to this earth by some kind of magic. In 1991 he latched onto our DADA Professor; Quirinus Quirrell with the plan to steal the Philosophers Stone and regain his physical body. However that plan failed as me, and my friends managed to keep the stone from him. Quirrell died in our confrontation, and Voldemort's soul escaped again. The Stone was destroyed shortly after to prevent him from trying again." Harry explained.

"I.. wow.. Philosophers Stone, Quirrel, Voldemort's soul.." Daphne said stunned as she took it in. "Your confrontation with Quirrel, you were only eleven at the time, how did he.. die?'

"I had the Basilisk in my second, so I don't think that my age matters all that much for these kind of things." Harry said with a wry look before continuing. "Voldemort and I both discovered that I had a protection in me that prevented him from even touching me while it harmed him in return. As a result, Quirrel simply burned alive, and disintegrated into ashes.."

"Disintegrated..?" Daphne repeated knowing that she had a look of shock on her face. "What sort of protection would do that?"

"It's an ancient Counter-Charm called Sacrificial Protection. I gained it when my mother died trying to protect me from Voldemort in an act of pure love. But those protections don't matter all that much anymore now. When Voldemort resurrected himself during the Triwizard Tournament, he also took my blood to circumvent the protections of the spell. Which brings us to the present, meaning that he now has a body and can harm me again." Harry explained with a faraway look as he seemed to remember multiple memories.

"Yes I remember the Triwizard finale. I can't begin to imagine what you must've experienced there." Daphne said timidly, thinking back on how he had returned all sweaty, panicky and wounded with a dead Cedric Diggory, before continuing with a small smile after his silence. "I never knew of such a protection.. but then again my older family members and predecessors would never have paid attention to a spell that would have required love and their own sacrifice."

"Yes, in any case." Harry said averting his eyes from her, and steering away from the Triwizard topic. "I'm trying to find out how Voldemort manages to keep his soul bound to earth. If I truly want to vanquish him I will have to find out what he is doing or using, and undo it so that he stays dead. He will keep returning otherwise, and win eventually."

"I see." Daphne said looking back at the papers again, seeing that they were starting to make more sense now. "Have you asked he Headmaster already about this?"

Harry let out a tired and frustrated sigh at this before he spoke. "I have, since the very beginning of our year here, multiple times even, but for some reason Dumbledore is withholding information. I know so for sure, because he has the same theory as me, even admitted it himself, but he refuses to share his own thoughts, and information on it until we've looked through all the memories he collected."

"Memories?" She asked with a frown as she thought, wondering why he was watching memories with the Headmaster and what they exactly entailed.

"Yes, every time I go meet him we either talk about some Order business, and whatnot or view memories of Voldemort's past.." Harry said in such a way that it told her these things had been bothered him for some time now.

"You go view memories of Voldemort's past?" Daphne asked with a frown of thought. "I don't know either why he would want to view those with you, but I'm sure that he has a good reason for it, one that he doesn't want to reveal yet…"

"I know, but this isn't the time to be slow and patient, we have to hurry and figure this out, who knows what Voldemort is using. Dumbledore refuses to tell me until we've seen all of the memories, but that could take weeks if not months, I want-no _need_ to know as fast as I can, which forms part of the reason why I wanted this book." Harry said with a determined gaze as he put his hand on the pages of her book.

"I see." Daphne said looking at her hands in her lap for a moment before meeting his eyes again. "Tell me everything you learned so far in these notes of yours, the section on immortality is very big, it will likely take a long time before we narrow down all the information and manage to pinpoint the exact method that has been used.. at least _If_ it is in this book. I can't say so for sure of course."

He gave a single nod at her. "It's worth trying."

Harry spend some time after this to explain that Voldemort could somehow tear own soul by committing murder in a most cold, and remorseless way, but didn't understand what would happen to the soul after that, and how it enabled him to stay on earth after the death of his body, nor how to reserve this effect. He also told her the things he had learned about Voldemort's past so far in Dumbledore's memories. For now they seemed to serve no purpose, but they might provide some clue later on as Voldemort's immortality and his past seemed to be connected somehow if they were to understand Dumbledore's intention on viewing the memories first.

"Okay, that's enough for tonight on that." Harry sighed in a tone of finality when they had gone through it all. "Let's have a look at the spell section and see what we can use."

Daphne nodded curtly and was glad that her hands were hidden underneath the table, otherwise he would have seen her clench her fists in response to his words.

She had already seen him do a bit of the Arts a long time ago when she had seen him practice in one of the disused classrooms, and truly hoped that her suspicions regarding his reaction with the Arts weren't correct.

No, she was just overthinking things, Harry did this because he had to, not because he wanted to. She had probably just imagined his reaction at the time in the disused classroom or maybe she didn't even remember it properly. Yes, he was just going to see some pages, be disgusted by them, try some spells, and then drop the whole spell section altogether for something else…

"Is something wrong, Daphne?" Harry asked, concern laced in his green eyes. "You always react like this when it gets brought up."

"It's nothing. Let's have a look at them." Daphne answered dismissively, scooting closer to the open book to look up the spell section. Some things were better left unexplained, and unsaid.. unless she absolutely had to.

Harry soon went through the pages without even getting an uncomfortable or distasteful expression as the detailed depictions, and descriptions of each cutting and disemboweling spell went past him, making her wonder how horrid his experiences in life must've been to appear so unaffected by it.

He stopped after some pages, and held his finger on one.

Daphne leaned closer to see what he was precisely pointing at, and felt all kinds of objections come up with an uneasy clench in her stomach.

"Harry, most of these spells are dangerous… but Fiendfyre especially is a bit of a bad choice to start with, you might be able to cast it, but it is extremely difficult to control, because of the Dark magic that gets infused into the flames. It might be non-sentient, but very nearly has a will of its own with the way it seeks out targets, and can go rampart the moment you summon it." Daphne said gently trying to coerce him away from that one. "I'm sure that there plenty of other spells we could-"

"-Voldemort used this in his battle against Dumbledore." Harry interjected, still looking at the moving picture of the all-consuming flame with a hard gaze. "He was able to control it and make an enormous beast out of it. It's a very strong spell, and I feel like that I too should eventually learn to do things of that level if I am to compete with him… It'll be a good reference point to see what I can do with my magic in contrast to him."

Daphne swallowed. The thought of Harry standing against Voldemort while exchanging such spells was so.. surreal. "Okay.. but let's leave it for another time, and slowly take things from there."

Harry glanced at her, but nodded and continued to page back and forth for some time after this before indicating toward a segment again.

"I've found two more, Opanare, and Mortigore."

She took a closer look at the spells he indicated and began reading the titles aloud.

"Dusk Heal, and Death Chill spoken as Opanare, and Mortigore. These are more uncommon, I've never heard of them before…" Daphne said looking at the descriptions, and depictions of the spells.

"Opanare, the Dusk Heal is a spell that can temporarily heal any injury short from having outright lost your limb." Harry began only to be stopped as she spoke up.

"Stop, stop. A spell that will only temporarily heal you? What.. what happens after it's cancelled or the duration of the spell expires?" Daphne asked, already having an idea as to what the answer would be with an uncomfortable feeling.

".. The injures will be healed instantly when the spell is cast, but will return when the effect of the spell ends, so if I were to mend a broken arm it would heal in an instant, but break again after the spell ends. It might sound like an failure of a Healing spell as it doesn't actually heal anything in the end, but I think this is rather meant for in the midst of battle." He said softly with a hand on his chin in thought.

"It's true that it would be useful in such a situation.. instantly being able to mend an injury for the rest of your duel can prove to be a life saver, even if the pain in the aftermath is a cruel reward for your victory." Daphne said feeling mixed about the spell. On one side it would be advantageous to have in a duel, but suffering the breaking and rupturing of the same injuring twice was no pleasantry to undergo. An unpleasantry she didn't want Harry to undergo, but she guessed that it was better than Fiendfyre..

"Well, it's to be expected when using a Healing spell that is infused with Dark magic. In any case, here is the other one, the Death Chill." Harry said tapping a spot on the same page before continuing. "It's a frost based spell that like the Fiendfyre, uses a Dark infusion to continuously freeze anything it comes into contact with. The fact that it will freeze anything makes it quite useful, but it is also quite versatile, because if I am to believe what is written here, I can also store a charge of the spell in my free hand."

"So, you can keep this spell at the ready in your free hand while casting spells with your wand in the other? Can you fire it off with your hand or does it work differently?" Daphne asked, she didn't like all these Dark infusions, but there was little choice as the whole book went on like this.

Harry frowned in thought as he went through the text of the spell again, before speaking up. "I don't know. They often seem to let out details on the spells, I'll just have to test it out after I learned it, and see for myself what it can do."

"Experimenting with spells isn't the safest thing you can do, Harry." Daphne responded seriously. The thought of him trying out a freezing spell on his own hand didn't sit well with her. "Many Witches and Wizards still get injured to this day by fiddling with even the simplest of spells."

"Don't worry, I'll merely test out what the exact effects and limitations are, I won't change anything about the spell itself. With the Opanare for example, I'll have to know how long the effect will last or whether or not the duration is tied to the severity of the injury." He said with an reassuring expression.

"As long as you're careful." Daphne said more calmly as she sank down a bit more in her chair.

"Well then, I'll immediately start practice with Opanare, and see what I can get done tonight." Harry continued, leaning over to take one last glimpse of the instructions before nodding to himself in understanding, and pointing the tip of his wand toward the palm of his hand.

Daphne turned her chair a bit and sat back in what she could only describe as slight anxiety as she watched him take in a calming breath.

Daphne saw his expression change slightly, the corner of his mouth twitch upward, small muscles in his hand move and flex before something black and smoke-like slowly poured out of his wand, and into his palm. For a moment it swirled around in his hand before whatever force that held it together failed, causing the shadows to lose their levitation, and glide through his fingers like velvet clothes before dissolving into thin air.

"You already had something solid on your first try." Daphne said with a small smile, hoping that he didn't see through the insincerity of it. "Just say when it gets too tiring, we can stop anytime."

He gave a short breathless laugh, as if she had said something that had landed far from the mark. "I'm far from done. This is hardly tiring for me."

"That so." She simply replied, it normally demanded quite some effort from people when they started learning such spells..

He began to try again, and again, and again. The progress clearly visible in front of her eyes as the ball in his hand gained more shape, density and stability with each attempt, Harry too began to enjoy himself more as he watched himself rapidly progress, until he finally called out in an excited voice.

"Look, Daphne I've done it! I've done it!"

She nodded, Daphne hadn't even taken her eyes of off him throughout it all, and had clearly seen how the shadows had flowed out of his wand, and into his palm to form a perfectly round, and pitch black ball. Occasionally she saw a tendril of thick smoke emerge from the surface, before diving back in on a different spot.

"You seem to be getting the hang, and workings of this quite quickly.." She remarked in a way that didn't entirely sound like a compliment to her own ears. Harry always had best the best in DADA, but he now seemed to know what he exactly needed to do without realising it himself.. People didn't learn spells in one night. Yet here he was, doing just that.

It was almost like he was a natural at it.. Something she had feared from the start.

"I know right!? I've already spend time learning other spells in the beginning of the year, but they took a lot longer to master, This spell is probably the easiest out of the three we have so far, but I was expecting the same difficulty here or maybe even worse, but it feels so easy! I understand and feel more after each try." He said in a tone and look of fascination, oblivious to her own reluctance as the mixture of smoke, and dark tendrils from the orb danced in his hand, and licked his palm through the guidance of his wand.

..His wand that lightly seemed to vibrate.

Was his hand shaking or perhaps his wand itself? She tried to take a better look, but was denied the chance when he stopped the spell again and rolled the sleeve of his arm up, before switching his wand to his other hand, and casting a Stinging Hex at his wand arm, causing a red spot to quickly form on it.

"A bit crude, but I can see what you're going for.." Daphne said watching him lightly cringe in pain of the Hex he inflicted on his arm.

Harry lightly grinned at her in response as he switched his wand back to his wand arm again, and started to form the orb again. "Can't be sure of my success unless I've seen it work in the field."

He had created the dark orb again in a matter of seconds, and continued to bring it toward the irritated spot on his exposed arm, letting the surface of the ball connect to the skin.

She watched with slight trepidation as the magic simply seemed to be sucked into his arm, and a dark glow enveloped the spot before fading.

"Look!" He exclaimed, holding up his arm and running his hand over the place where irritated his skin previously had been, to reveal perfectly unblemished skin. "It worked!"

"It did, good job, Harry. Take note of the time until the effects ends, this is a good opportunity to see how long it actually lasts." Daphne advised, inspecting his arm to see that true to his word, the affected area of his Hex was completely gone.

Harry nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I'll also test some other things after that."

She watched him cast the spell a few more times for practice, and to burn some time until he cringed, and held up his arm which showed the irritated skin of his Hex again.

"The duration isn't all that long, I guess it truly is meant for battle with the speed in which you can cast and heal your wounds." Daphne commented, likely voicing his thoughts as he made a sound of agreement.

After that he cast the spell again, only to gain a surprised look when the black orb didn't do anything after coming in contact with his skin again.

"I guess this means that It doesn't work more than once on the same wound.." Harry said repeatedly bringing the spell against his arm with no effect or result.

"Makes sense, otherwise you would be able to use it indefinitely. Maybe its magic unintentionally lingers in the wound and prevents the effect from occurring multiple times." Daphne supplied, watching him cast another hex at his arm that seemed to have less force in it than the last one as she seated herself again.

"Could very well be true." Harry said before elaborating on what he was going to do when she questioningly gestured to his new Hex wound. "Oh, I also want to see whether or not the duration gets longer if the wound is less severe."

He used the spell again to which they concluded afterward, that the degree of the wound didn't have any effect on the duration as the spot reappeared again after the same amount of time.

"Do you want to try it, Daphne? It can be a real lifesaver to know this one." Harry asked closing his hand into a fist, dispersing the shadowy orb into a cloud of quickly dispersing smoke after testing how long it would remain stable without the guidance of his wand.

She shook her head at him. "I don't have the same.. affinity as you." Daphne said pointedly, letting him know that she knew about his type of reaction with the Arts. "Maybe another time, Harry."

"Oh." Harry said as realisation dawned upon his face, before running his hand through his hair with a small laugh. "Nothing escapes your notice, or does it?"

She averted her eyes to glance at the book that laid open on its spine. "Hard not to if you look like you're having fun with it, while others wouldn't-no, _couldn't_."

He let out a sigh through his nose, and gained a softer expression as he squatted in front of her chair, and softly squeezed her knees, sending some comfort through her.

"Well, It's true. I'm one of the few that feels that way with the Arts, but you shouldn't worry about that Daphne, it's nothing, if anything it helps me progress faster, just look at what I managed to do in one evening! I learned a spell that could potentially safe my life if I needed just a little bit more time in a fight to move, and function at my best." Harry replied with a penetrating gaze.

Daphne said nothing, and simply put her hands on top of his, feeling hair fall down from her shoulders as she leaned forward to him, wanting to be closer.

He rose up again after a few moments to her disappointment, and turned back to the book in front of him to start paging through it again. "Well then, let's see what the rest of the spell section has."

She quickly put her hand on the book to halt his advancement, surprising him and herself a bit. "Let's not go there yet, Harry. The spells there are a grade higher, or lower.. it just depends on how you view it. Nothing we are in need of in any case." She said with a calm voice, despite feeling different on the inside.

He looked at her with his head still angled half toward the book, making him glance at her from the corner of his eyes while the flames of the serpents casted a few shadows over his face, bringing out his bright, green irises.

"It's everything we are in need of, Daphne, I'm not in the position to be picky about spells, I need to learn those that are strong, and effective to increase my chances in the upcoming war." Harry said turning back to her again.

"You may be right about that, but issue here is your own safety in this... I have told you before, the Arts can be dangerous in more ways than just against your opponent. I'm getting the idea that you don't realise what could happen to you." Daphne retorted a bit forcefully in her want to make him comprehend.

Harry frowned, seemingly not understanding her worries. "Aren't you overreacting a little bit? The Bone-Breakers don't mean all that much. I've only just begun, and learned one spell, you're worrying about this too much."

She shook her head at him, he still wasn't listening. "Yes, one spell, but how many do you intend to learn, how much do you plan to practice? The more talent you have in this, the faster everything goes, both the good and the bad. And I've already seen enough to say that you have plenty of it, Harry."

"I'm aware, Daphne, we've been over this already, and I'm willing to take the risks, and control them if they do appear. I'm not just doing this for my own sake, but also for everyone else's. To keep them safe, to keep them out of it." He retorted, holding her gaze with his hard one.

She bit her lip, and wondered what was more dangerous in the long run; threading into dangerous grounds for your own sake or for someone else's..

"I don't care about everyone! You don't have to-" She began only to be overruled by Harry.

"-I _do_ have to, you weren't there in the atrium to see the things Voldemort and Dumbledore could do! I wouldn't last a minute against either of them without some bizarre amount of luck or unexpected phenomenon helping me!" He said heatedly before continuing in a more leveled volume as he regained control of himself. "These spells that I have now are fine, but far from enough."

"Then let's just work with what we have right now, and come back to it some other time.. and see from there onward?" She tried feeling deflated and tired.

"Maybe." Harry grunted reluctantly, staring at the skeleton of the Basilisk.

"Please? For me?" She asked softly, pleading with him, seeing his jaw muscles flex in their tension.

"Fine." Harry finally said in an uptight voice after some moments of silence, relenting, but looking far from done on the subject.

Stillness followed, and Daphne spoke up, desperate for a change of subject. "So.. who do you think might have informed Snape about yesterday?"

Harry plumbed down next to her in the chair with a heavy sigh, and began to study his wand.

"I honestly don't know.. Hermione, Ron , and Neville don't even know about anything of this, and likely think that we are still practicing Occlumency right now." Harry said indicating toward the wet dungeon around them. "I already had practiced enough Occlumency at the time to shield myself from letting any hints leak out, so I don't think our surface thoughts were read either by someone. Did you tell Tracey about it by any chance? Maybe something went wrong there..?" Harry asked carefully, trailing off a bit at his suggestion.

Daphne shook her head at him. "I didn't tell a single soul. The only way that somebody could have known in my opinion was by listening in on us on the evening we discussed the plans to bring it into Hogwarts with our owls. But we used Silencing Charms and were far away from any classrooms that were being used, or am I wrong?" Daphne asked in confirmation of ruling out multiple methods.

"No you're absolutely right.. there was only one chance, on that one evening. We only discussed it once there, and kept quiet about it since then." Harry said agreeing with her as he stared ahead of him in thought.

Daphne went silent as joined him in thought, and looked at the skeletal corpse of the Basilisk, before a memory suddenly struck her. "..Didn't you say that you met Nott on the way there?"

Harry's eyes locked on hers as he lifted his head from his hands that leaned on the table. A look of equal realization dawning upon his face at her words.

"Yes, you're right, it was on the same night we discussed our plans, we mentioned everything there, how we were going to do it, what we were getting inside, and how we would know it had arrived, and where it would be." He said suddenly standing up with a short screech of his chair, and beginning to pace back and forth, in what seemed to be an overdrive of thoughts racing through him.

"I saw him walk away after we stopped talking in the hallway, but who says that he truly went on to wherever he was heading to? I myself went straight to our classroom after that.. he might have turned around, and followed me there.." Harry continued, turning his head to look at her for her opinion and thoughts as he paced.

"That might be so, but we had used Silencing Charms. He couldn't have listened in on us without forcibly breaking them, and notifying us of their destruction." Daphne replied, finding his assessment logical, but not without its problems.

He stopped pacing as he pondered the hole in his hypothesis.

"That's true.. but Nott is still the most probable suspect. He himself mentioned that he would start fighting back in other ways after I bested him in our duel. I don't know how, but he must've managed to circumvent our privacy Charms, listened in on us, and decided to inform Snape." Harry mused aloud with a frown.

"Would Professor Snape believe such a story from one of his students?" She asked, finding it a bit skeptical that he would take just the word of Nott for granted.

She saw Harry gain a dark look on his face in response, with his voice reflecting it equally as he spoke. "Normally? No. But Snape would have been more eager to believe it if it concerned me negatively, he simply hates me. Nott used that to his advantage to feed him some cock and bull story about me forcing you to do it."

"..It's true that he immensely dislikes you, and responded very doubtful to our alibi, his belief changing from you threatening to drugging me." Daphne replied, wondering where their intense hatred for each other stemmed from, she had hardly seen Harry look like he did now thus far. It lightly surprised her as it was more than a little intimidating. "It sounds probable, and the most logical, but don't do anything stupid in response, Harry."

He sighed and let his face relax again, letting the hateful expression fall for a more neutral one. "I know, it won't be good if I keep using Bone-Breakers against him, the Teachers might start looking into my knowledge and practice of the Arts more than I want them to, which leaves me with the standard school spells, but those are too weak against Nott's shields. I hate to admit it, but his defensive moves and spells are something he is obviously quite good at.."

"Nott knows that he will lose, and be more at fault than you if he decides to openly engage you first. Let's use this deadlock, and not get ourselves into trouble, and simply watch our backs against more stunts like that." Daphne advised while he hummed noncommittally in response.

"You too, Daphne, remember to stick with Tracey."

"Always." She said with a smile, warmed at his concern.

Harry nodded, and gestured toward the book on the table before speaking. "Let's leave the book here, it isn't all that safe in your dorm, not to mention carrying it back and forth every time we come here. It'll cause a lot of problems for us if it gets discovered. The Shack was close enough for me."

"It would probably be the best hiding place right now." She reluctantly agreed.

"Only I can enter the Chamber of Secrets, so we don't have to worry about the book being found by others in here."

She didn't like the idea of letting the book out of her sight and reach, but the facts were stacked against her. Leaving the book in the hidden bowels of the Room was a much better alternative to keeping it underneath her bed, where it might be discovered either on purpose or accident.

"Promise you won't come here to practice alone if I leave it here?" Daphne asked, she wanted to believe that he wouldn't venture down without her, but his drive for progress coupled with his affinity was a bit of a wild factor.

"I had already promised that to you when we first discussed the book, but I'll do so again, so yes, I promise, Daphne." Harry replied in a reassuring and honest way, making her relax again in his sincerity, and promise.

"Well.. I think that I've had enough of this place for tonight." Daphne said standing up and closing the book with a soft clap. How she wished it could stay that way.

Harry grabbed his broom that had been propped up against the table, and held his hand out to her. A hand that she liked to take and hold. It was always warm for her.

"Ready for another ride?"

She nodded, but pulled out her wand before doing anything else. "Come here, I'll see what I can do against those Hexes first."

* * *

**Introduced the first spells, more to come of course as the story progresses but that'll take some time… What a surprise right?**

**Lemme know what you think!**

**You might think: "Where is the Basilisk skin that was before the final entrance of the Chamber?" Well, I decided to remove it as shed snake skin is rather fragile, and seeing as the whole Basilisk corpse already rotted away. I found it a bit strange to keep the shed skin intact.**

**UltimateTouken: she could have said to make out instead of sex: Answer: You can make out in the castle, sex is a bit harder to do unnoticed, unless you know of the Room of Requirement, but she doesn't know about that yet, hence her choice in answer. And the holiday will be interesting all right. (Especially the second half with the Greengrasses) It'll span multiple chapters because of all the things that are to come.**

**moosejuice5: Harry doesn't say goodnight at the end of chapter 22, idk why but that bugs me: Answer: I think you meant to say Dumbledore at the time?:P Edited it so that both now properly say goodbye!**

**Fredrick Bismarck: Thank you for all your reviews, they were great to read!**

**Cordan: Thank you too! I'll fully continue to devote my attention to this story, the thought of doing multiple at the same time isn't something I quite like. (Compliments to those who can.) **

**Next chapter: Last Slug Club + other things, which leaves us with two weeks until the holidays/masquerade. I estimate the masquerade to be chapt 26/27.**

* * *

**References:**

**Harry: "Dumbledore refuses to tell me until we've seen all of the memories.": chapt 6**

**Harry: "I remember you saying that your grandparents were on the Dark side with your father being the first exception in the family line.": chapt 12**

**Harry: "Resurrection to be precise. I've been doing research in resurrection techniques.": chapt 3+4+5**

**Daphne: She had already seen him do a bit of the Arts a long time ago when she had seen him practice in one of the disused classrooms: chapt 8**

**Harry: "Is something wrong, Daphne?" Harry asked, concern laced in his green eyes. "You always react like this when it gets brought up.": chapt 11+13+17+22**

**Harry: "I've already spend time of learning other spells in the beginning of the year, but they took a lot longer to master.": chapt 4+5**

**Daphne: "..Didn't you say that you met Nott on the way there?": chapt 17**

**Harry's 'talent' is a reference to the Gift in chapt 17**

* * *

**Spells and their Latin names:**

**Dusk Heal (Derived from Opacare and Sanare) : Opanare**

**Fiendfyre (Bellua Ignis) : Bellua Ignis**

**Death Chill (Derived from Mortem and Frigore) : Mortigore**

* * *

**Parseltongue gibberish I made up:**

**Hasrah: Open**

**Sefres: Light**


	24. Fake Candy and Renewed Suspicions

**Disclaimer: The Harry Potter Universe and all the characters belong to J.K. Rowling.**

* * *

Harry entered the spacious room with Hermione, Neville, and Daphne. It would be the last Club meeting before the masquerade that was to be held in two weeks from now.

Supplementary lessons had continued as planned, and gone well so far. People seemed to be learning the dances at a good pace, even faster than they had actually expected them to. Leaving them every time with some free space at the end to allow everyone to do some free practice for themselves.

Harry headed onward to the polished table to seat himself as usual but was halted when a hand firmly clapped itself on his shoulder, and quickly steered him away from the others.

"The rest of you go ahead, and enjoy yourselves for a moment as I catch up with, Harry here!" Slughorn called out merrily to the rest as he guided him toward the one of the large windows again near the back of the room.

Harry twisted his head back to them as he was taken away by the Potions Professor, and just barely managed to send a plea for help with his eyes to Daphne. Who only responded by giving him a wave, and smile.

Dammit, woman! You're not helping! He yelled inside of himself, giving her a glare as best as he could from his position while Hermione and Neville give him a supportive look.

"So, Harry." Slughorn began when they stood away from the others in privacy. "I want to congratulate you on your relationship with Daphne, it's truly wonderful, a better match than a human and Veela could ever make if you ask me!" He finished with a laugh that made his round belly bounce somewhat.

"Uh, thanks.." Harry said tentatively. Unsure how to respond, was getting praise for being in a relationship considered normal?

Slughorn waved him away and leaned a bit closer before continuing in a conspiring tone. "So, has my advice been useful to you?"

"Advice? Oh yeah, that, yes, uh. I thought of something, but I still need to.. implement it." Harry replied slowly. Embarrassed to admit his tardiness.

"You mean to say that you haven't asked her to the party yet, or am I misunderstanding something?" Slughorn asked surprise quickly etching itself upon his face.

"I haven't. I still need to ask her.. it's just that we both have been very busy." Harry answered, and he meant it. There was homework, the supplementary lessons, their escape to the Shack, and recent practice in the Chamber. The timing for it had been a bit bad, but then again, he wouldn't have had this problem if he had kicked his ass into action before those events.

"You two certainly do not seem to follow a chronological order in this, but I shouldn't complain on what is right and wrong for you two, just keep in mind that time is really drawing near. Surely you don't want to be that guy who comes rolling in at the very last second, or do you?" He said with a pointed but friendly look.

"I don't. I'll make sure to ask her soon." Harry said more in a promise to himself than anyone else.

"Splendid, Harry, splendid!" Slughorn said beaming at him, clapping him a few times on the shoulder. It didn't rattle him too much this time however. Maybe he was getting used to it..

He nodded but soon started to give the man a searching look. "Slughorn, I appreciate the advice, and encouragement you always offer me, but why are you helping me-no, us anyway?" Harry asked wanting to know the reason for Slughorn's active role in sparking their relationship in the last couple of weeks, months or maybe even before that.

Slughorn began to pinch the tip of his mustache with his thumb and index finger as he looked up in a thoughtful pose. "Well, you know how I like to stay in touch with important people, and I was merely hoping that we could all stay acquaintances or even friends after your graduation. Maybe have the two of you visit more of my social gatherings, and have a jolly time together!"

Harry had to keep the wry look from his face. Uhuh. Connections for more wealth and gifts, He should have known better.

"That doesn't really answer my question, you could just as easily have us come separately."

"Ah yes, very good of you, don't let your goal out of sight…" Slughorn said thrusting a finger up. "As for your question.. you might not realise it yourself, but by keeping it steady you two could easily become one of the most influential couples in the Wizarding world. Not separately, but together."

"I'm not so sure about that, Slughorn." Harry said skeptically, not really seeing himself in such a way or position in the future, he quite frankly didn't even bother to look that far ahead with everything that was going on.

"But I in contrast am sure, Harry. It's quite simple really. Daphne has a great future in Potions in front of her through her own talent in the subject while her father's line of apothecaries will provide her with many connections throughout the populace for supplies and sales. Being wealthy, Pure-Blood and from an old family line are also factors to take into consideration. At least for some." Slughorn explained, momentarily pausing as he stared at him in thought before continuing in an unusually serious look. "And you, Harry. You are a _hero_ to the people. Whether you want it or not. It's who you will always be remembered, and seen as."

Harry grimaced a bit but hid it by shaking his head. "You're completely right about Daphne, but merely being famous for being The Boy Who Lived won't help me forever." It had been like this for years in Hogwarts, he would simply go to the background again, once the excitement of whatever news about him sizzled down.

"You are assuming that you will achieve nothing special in the future, Harry. Now, I haven't seen you duel or blink out exceptionally during my lessons, nor have I seen you display great skill of controlling your environment, but I know that you have... something. I can't describe or place it, but I know that there is something special about you, and that we will all eventually bear witness to it when you decide to unravel it."

Harry stared at the Professor for a moment. Not having expected to hear such honest and serious words from the man who continuously sought to find the greatest of minds, and talents around him. "I.. thank you, Horace." He said using his first name for the first time, feeling strangely flattered, and heartened by the Potions Master.

"Fantastic, Harry!" Horace said jovially, giving him another clap on the shoulder. "let's rejoin the others shall we?"

"Sure." Harry responded, finding the clap more comfortable now as he walked toward the table to take his seat with the others whom were busy conversing with each other.

"What was it about this time, Harry?" Hermione asked curiously when he had seated himself between her and Daphne.

He smiled a bit and waved with his hand to indicate that it wasn't very important. "He is quite interested in my relationship with Daphne, and asked some things."

Hermione gave him a funny expression in response which wasn't all that displaced as it was probably quite weird for a Professor to be interested in student relationships. Especially if you have McGonagall in mind as comparison.

The sound of ringing glass brought their attention to Slughorn again just as he put his glass and tableware down again. Having been the one to make the sound.

He smiled infectiously and spread his arms to them as if he wanted to embrace them all. "It is truly wonderful that you are all here again! I hope you are all doing well in your other subject besides Potions, and have made your preparations for the upcoming holiday and masquerade! Well then, let's jump right into it. Daphne! How are things in the supplementary lessons coming along?"

"Ahead of schedule, no problems in sight, Horace. We'll likely use the time we have left for some open practice or specific guidance." Daphne answered with a smile, satisfied with their current situation.

Horace smiled in the same way, and twirled his mustache a few times. "Just superb! I can also note that the decorations, services, and performances have also been taken care of on my side. All that is left now to wrap things up, and wait anxiously for the night of destiny."

Harry saw Blaise roll his eyes at the 'anxiously' part, and he wondered if there was anything that could remotely motivate the Latin Slytherin to do anything beyond a yawn, and eyeroll… Maybe he was just born that way.

The twins remained mostly silent and expressionless like always, but Harry could see some excitement in their eyes as the twins exchanged a short but meaningful glance. Must be a twin thing, he mused as they apparently understood each other without having to exchange words, much like Fred and George.

Harry didn't bother himself with looking too deep into Cormac's intentions as he saw the wiry haired male stare ahead of him with a lecherous grin.

Neville looked oddly comfortable with it all, Harry had expected him to be more nervous about it, but apparently had been wrong in his assumption. The dance lessons probably gave him more confidence now that he had gotten it all down again.

Hermione leaned over to him when he looked her way and began whispering to him.

"Please tell me you have already asked her, Harry."

He sighed deeply, and ran his hand over his face in response. "I guess I'll just stay silent then? That was exactly what Slughorn asked me moments ago."

The look she gave him in response was both chiding, and worried. "I thought that you would have asked her by now! What's keeping you?"

"We've been very busy with the- uh, Occlumency. I haven't found a good moment yet to show, and ask her." He replied, and it was true. Sort of.

"You have some kind of idea or plan then?" Hermione asked with a slightly perplexed face as if she hadn't expected him to.

"Yeah, I do actually!" Harry quickly whispered back, nearly head-budding Hermione when Daphne suddenly got closer to them and leaned against his shoulder.

"What are you whispering about, Harry?" She asked with a grin, slightly grasping his upper arm.

"Nothing much. Me, and Hermione were just talking for a bit."

Daphne tilted her head questioningly and made a humming sound in response. "Oh, dire problems?"

"No, It's.. it's a surprise." He answered avoiding a direct answer.

Her delicate eyebrows rose in curiosity. "Oh? Is it for me then? It likely is if you're being all secretive about it with Hermione here, who is your only female friend that could rightfully advice you on your problems since I quite frankly don't consider Luna the best choice for that."

"Luna has good advice from time to time." Harry retorted weakly. "If you get some kind of red thread out of it at least."

"So what kind of surprise is it?" She asked sweetly with an expectant look. Coming closer with her flowery scent.

"Surprise?" Neville piped up from next to Hermione, leaning forward a bit to look at them curiously.

Dammit, Neville. Now is a bad time..

"It's nothing major, Neville." Hermione replied calmingly, trying to help him a bit.

"Yes, we're- I.. whoah!" Harry began only to abruptly interrupt himself, finding it difficult to speak when he suddenly felt her hand on his inner thigh with small, suggestive strokes underneath the table. "Planning to ravish me?" She whispered to him with daring eyes as she continued to lean against him with her shoulder, making it all look like a simple cuddle to others.

"What's wrong, Harry?" Hermione asked with a questioning look to his change in speech, and uncomfortable expression. Looking between the two of them with shifting eyes.

"Nothing." He said with a fake smile. Surprised at himself for not squeaking it out as he caught Daphne's hand from going to dangerous places and holding it still.

Daphne just smiled slyly at him, and slowly retracted her hand to the relief of his beating hart.

He better hurry it up now or face more of her sweet torture until he spilled his secrets. He thought as he swallowed a lump awayand smiled at the others.

Neville eyes shifted between all of them with a frown on his face.

"I'm kind of feeling left out here."

* * *

"Hey, Ron." He said in greeting as he fell down in one of the seats near the fire, having come back from the Club after wrapping things up rather quickly after their usual meal. Thankfully as Daphne looked ready to do more sneaky and distracting things to coerce it out of him.

"Oh, hey guys." Ron replied sharing a smile with Hermione as he did. "Did anything interesting happen at the Club?"

"Not really, we discussed how things are coming along, and ended it pretty quickly." Hermione answered taking a seat next to Ron in the leather couch.

Ron shrugged. "No news is good news sometimes, I guess."

"Ron, I still need to tell, and ask you a few things about the upcoming holiday." Harry said remembering his plans for Christmas.

"What's up?" He asked turning to him while Hermione did the same.

"I discussed things with Dumbledore, and he agreed to let me stay with the Greengrasses for a week. I'll come celebrate Christmas with you guys at the Burrow, but will leave in the second half of the Holiday, and stay with Daphne for the remainder."

Ron shrugged again in response. "Mom will be disappointed, but it'll be alright. At least you'll be there with us for Christmas, she would probably throw a fit if you didn't."

"Ah yes, the thing is however, that I would also like to bring Daphne with me to the Burrow, and introduce her to everyone." Harry continued tentatively.

"Doesn't Daphne want to celebrate Christmas with her own family?" Hermione asked as she herself would spend her holiday with her own family.

"She'll likely go back on the evening before Christmas, Daphne will only be staying for a few days." Harry answered.

Ron frowned a bit in response. "It's all fine with me, but mom is probably going to throw a fit after all. I'll ask her in a letter, but don't worry too much about it. I'm sure that Daphne can come, mom won't outright deny someone like your girlfriend."

"I see.. but why would she 'throw a fit after all'?" He asked with a frown.

"Well you know how she is with picking partners for us all, she still isn't all that happy with Fleur and Bill. The thing is that it's probably going to be the same with you. She has been hinting at Ginny to try and get something started with you all throughout the summer holiday before you came." Ron answered with a sigh and eyeroll. Likely remembering multiple dramas that had come to pass at the Burrow.

"At least she'll know beforehand this way?" Hermione supplied carefully, trying to make it sound better.

"Hm." Harry simply hummed in response. Hoping that their suspicions, and predictions weren't going to come true. He would really like it if Molly could take a liking to Daphne... He had already feared for becoming another Fleur and Bill in the household.

"Well, I'm going to my dorm for a bit, and get some school books." Hermione said standing up, after no one continued the subject, and made her way toward her dorm.

"Are you planning on asking her, Ron?" He asked after she was out of range.

"Asking, what, sorry?" Ron replied with a confused look, signaling that he wasn't following him.

"You know. The masquerade." He added, making the subject more specific.

Ron's confused look gained a frown with it. "Why would I do that? We're already going together."

Harry shook his head at him. "Because it just suddenly happened for you two because of a stupid argument you two had about the Slug Club. Hermione asked me not to tell you about this, but I was getting the idea that the thought hadn't struck you yet. So I'm telling you regardless now, and will say that she would really appreciate it if you did something for her there." Harry elaborated.

"I.. I honestly hadn't thought about that, thanks, mate." Ron said as his eyebrows rose high and he seemed to realise a few things. "What.. what do you reckon she would like?"

"You tell me, Ron. "Harry said with a pointed look, testing Ron's knowledge on what Hermione would like now that he knew what he needed to do.

"..Maybe I could take her to the Lake or something?" Ron said looking at him for confirmation of his ideas.

He kept silent, and nodded in approval at Ron as Hermione returned to them with a few books held securely against her chest.

* * *

"Where are you taking me, Harry?" Daphne asked him as they stalked though the corridor of the seventh floor underneath his Invisibility Cloak, having just finished leading another supplementary lesson. "And what's with the bag?" She continued, indicating toward the small bag he had pulled out of his robe pocket.

"It's all for the surprise, Daphne. Patience." Harry answered calmly, not revealing any of his plans yet.

"So it _was_ for me!" She whispered excitedly with a big smile quickly forming on her face. "Come on, tell me then, what is it?"

"You'll see." He said mysteriously to her nudging. checking to see that the hallways was clear before taking the cloak off of them.

"Why are we here?.. It seems to be the same place where Tracey ends up every time." He heard Daphne mumble quietly from behind him.

"Sorry?" He asked to her mumbling, halting himself from opening the secret door.

She shook her head a bit and smiled again. "No, it's nothing important, don't mind me. Please continue."

Harry gave a small shrug, and continued with his plan by pacing in front of a blank spot of wall with a single thought in mind.

"What the? How?" He heard Daphne say in sudden surprise, signaling that the door had appeared for them.

He smiled at her in response, but didn't open the door yet. "Why, magic of course."

She gave him a meaningful look, and put a hand on her hip. "You know what I mean. Why did that door suddenly appear, and what's inside?"

"This is the Room of Requirements. It appears here when you walk past it three times thinking about what you need. As for what is inside.. that is the surprise." Harry answered before reaching into his pocket and holding up a lengthy, piece of cloth . "Close your eyes. I don't want you to see it yet when I open the door."

"Bondage again? I see that you're planning on ravishing me after all, I guess that it's understandable once in a while." Daphne said unabashedly, closing her eyes nonetheless for him with a smile on her lips.

"Shut up." He said good naturedly, putting the cloth over her covered eyes and tying it up with a simple knot behind her head before taking her hand, and guiding her inside.

"What's that smell? Something smells really good in here.." She asked sniffing the air in the room after he closed the entrance behind them.

"You'll see in a moment, Daphne. Don't be impatient." He chided taking her bag from her, and laying it down alongside his near the door.

"Ok. You may open your eyes." He said shortly after he removed the cloth from her eyes.

"..Wow." She said slowly in amazement with a shocked expression as he saw her slowly turn on her feet to take in the whole room from the ceiling to the floor beneath her.

_I need a room of candy._ That was the thought he had used when he paced in front of the room, and the room had provided as best as it could. Giving a sight that was quite out of the ordinary.

"This is ridiculous!" Daphne exclaimed with a laugh as she darted forward to study all the creative forms up close with a big smile on her face.

It was as if they had been dropped inside some kind of small wonderland as candles and their holders had turned into Cauldron Cakes with Candy Sticks running through them to imitate the candles and holders while large pieces of sitting furniture like couches, and chairs had changed into something fluffy, and Marshmallow-like with Every Flavour Beans, and pieces of Hard Candy decorating it in imaginative patterns.

The floor beneath them, and the ceiling above them was chocolate brown with streaks of other colours running through it, while the walls themselves were lined with shelves of all kinds of treats in jars, pots, and packages. He saw that the products on the shelves seemed to be a mixture of Muggle, and Wizarding candy, with the exception of a few that were unknown to him as they ranged from simple to bizarre in appearance in each of the shelves.

"You mentioned a few times that you really liked candy, so I thought that you might like seeing something like this." Harry said with a smile. Glad that she liked it. "Although I strongly advice not to eat anything in here."

Daphne turned her head to him, drawing her eyebrows down to feign an offended expression. "Why? Are you saying that I would get too fat for you? Too much meat for you here already?" She asked questioningly, softly slapping her own butt unashamedly for emphasis.

"No, no. You have a great.. uh. Body." Harry said slowly to which she grinned appreciatively before shaking his head. "What I'm saying is that everything in this room isn't edible. The Room of Requirement is not capable of creating any food. Everything here simply looks, and feels like it, but I personally learned from experience that it doesn't taste the same." He continued with a distasteful expression, remembering how awful the plastic-like Cauldron Cake had tasted when he tested them beforehand. The taste had lingered for a whole day on his tongue after that..

Daphne laughed in response, likely imagining his reaction to the foul, and unexpected taste as small pieces of candy floated past their feet followed shortly after by a group of hopping Chocolate Frogs that tried to catch it by making use of their elastic, chocolate tongues.

"So you made a room full of candy, because I like candy, but it's actually fake candy, leaving me with no candy." Daphne summarized with a wry, but playful look as she crossed her arms beneath her breasts.

"Uh, yeah, but that's why I brought this." He said holding up the small bag in his hand she questioned him about earlier, before opening it and showing the contents to her.

"Mousse Cakes, Sugar Quills, and Pumpkin Pastries, all of my favourites. I see that you remembered and came fully prepared." She praised haughtily before her tone, and look turned flirtatious. "Quite a lot of effort you go through for snogging me, Harry. You know that you can just throw me down, and have your way right?"

"There is more to it than that." Harry said ignoring a small flush, laying the bag down on one of the white and decorated tables, and coming closer to her.

"But it's part of the reason." Daphne confirmed with a sly smile.

He grasped one of her hands in both of his larger ones, feeling her soft skin underneath his fingers.

Daphne sly smile was quickly replaced for somewhat of an surprised and curious expression at his action, but stayed silent otherwise, waiting for him to do something.

Harry let out small breath, wondering why he was slightly nervous in the first place until Horace's words rang through him, giving him silent encouragement. _You make it genuine, put that above all! Be direct, watch your body language, and look her into the eyes._

He straightened himself, and looked her in the eyes, feeling himself come more to peace as she returned the grasp on his hands, and ever so gently nudged him into action with her expectant blue eyes.

"I'm bringing this up a bit late, and that is entirely my fault, but we just sort of ended up going together to the party without anything being done for it on my part. But I know that you deserve better so I'm asking you anyway. Daphne, will you be my date, and go to the masquerade with me?" Harry asked coming a bit closer to her.

She laughed softly, not in a mocking way, but he spoke up regardless.

"What?" He asked in confusion, wondering why she laughed. Had he just royally messed up?

She stopped laughing as she shook her head, making gesture with her hand, indicating that it wasn't his fault. "It's just that we first become friends, pair up and go to the party, share our first kiss, start a relationship _after_ all that, and now you finally ask me to the same party. The order of events is just a bit jumbled."

He cringed as Horace's words struck him again. "It's true that the order in which things happened was a bit.. off."

"It doesn't matter, nothing goes perfectly. It doesn't even have to. It's fine as it is." Daphne said softly, looking back at him with a soothing look as a few brightly coloured birds flew past their heads.

"So? Is that a yes?" Harry asked with a small grin as he spread his arms a bit.

She gave him a radiant smile in return and nodded.

"Of course it is." Daphne said happily before closing the distance between them and kissing him.

Her sweet lips moved over his, and he marveled at how wonderful they felt again. Quickly coming to encircle his arms around her waist again as her hands rested against his chest.

"I like sweet things, Harry." Daphne whispered sensually against his lips before he felt her push against his chest making him walk backward, and unexpectedly fall down into an overly soft couch after its edge buckled his knees.

"Daphne?" He began only to fall silent as she straddled him, and looked down at him from her position above him. Her blonde hair hung loose, and gently fell down around their faces. Blocking much of their surroundings like a golden curtain of privacy.

He felt his hands go to her waist again as she descended to kiss him.

It was more passionate this time, her lips moved with more urgency, more need, and he complied to her pace.

He suddenly felt her tongue glide across his lips, making is heart beat spike and increase in pace, as his eyes shot open to look at her.

Daphne didn't open her eyes however, instead one of her hands went to his face while her other went into his hair, and softly tugged at it. A moment later he felt her tongue across his lips again with a sound of impatience after he hadn't responded the first time.

He tentatively opened his mouth, allowing Daphne entrance to which she let out a small moan of approval, and slipped her tongue inside his mouth. Sending new sensations through him as he met her, and began to duel with her in return.

Daphne disconnected with him after several moments, and looked at him through clouded eyes. "It's okay, Harry. . use your hands." She said grabbing one of his hands that was on her waist and placing it lower before continuing to kiss him again.

He silently complied again, having been unsure of what she would have wanted at first, but gaining more confidence as he ran his hands along her legs, stomach, and arse, making her moan when he pushed back against her to explore her own mouth.

It was sometime later until they sat there in the couch with ruffled clothes and hair, cuddling as he held her in his arms, taking in her sweet scent while she rested her head on his chest contently with the rest of her body lying on the couch.

"So are we still getting some of that candy or..?" Harry asked seeing the bag laying abandoned on the table in front of them.

"Later." Daphne mumbled with a content sigh as he combed his fingers through her hair.

"Why don't we spend our time here instead of the Chamber, Harry?" Daphne asked softly a few moments later, idly plucking the decorations off of their couch.

"I don't find it entirely safe here anymore to hide something so important. Quite a few people know of its existence since we used it for DA meetings in fourth year. Even more so after the room was discovered by Umbridge and her squad." Harry answered remembering how Edgecombe had revealed their location, leading up to them being captured, and Dumbledore's escape from Minister Fudge.

"Urgh, don't speak about, Umbridge. We hated her so much." Daphne said with disgust in her voice. "What's with this DA anyway? I heard Malfoy blabber about some secret club he uncovered after Dumbledore vanished at the time, but never got much clarification on it."

"It stood for Dumbledore's Army, merely to have a jab at the Ministry, because they were afraid of exactly that; Dumbledore raising an army to overthrow the Ministry."

"Seriously? Students overthrowing them? Well, it doesn't actually surprise me all that much, Fudge didn't really seem capable to me from the moment he started. I guess that it isn't above his level to think that Dumbledore could take the Ministry over with students that haven't even graduated yet." Daphne commented insultingly.

"Yeah, but we used it to learn DADA, since Umbridge wasn't doing anything for us there, and we would have ended up in trouble with the exams if we didn't."

"I guess that Slytherins weren't invited?" Daphne asked rhetorically. "I remember it very well, Tracey, Astoria, and I also formed a little club at the time for ourselves to practice spells for the exams. The Weasley twins really gained some respect from me in that year though, especially with the way they left Hogwarts." She continued smiling a bit as she thought back to her experiences on it.

Harry let out a small laugh as he remembered the pure pandemonium Fred, and George had set up. Respect worthy indeed.

"..So just for clarification here, was Malfoy really one of the people that discovered you here? He knew how to get in, and where it was?" Daphne asked after several moments, suddenly appearing to be in deep thought.

Harry wondered why she specifically wanted to know that but replied anyway. "Yeah he likely heard it all from Edgecombe in detail, and waited in ambush for us right outside the door. He was actually the one to catch me with a Trip Jinx, and deliver me to Umbridge."

"That so.. Harry.. I think that Malfoy is also using the Room of Requirements." Daphne said slowly, shifting a bit in his arm to look at him better after her statement.

He immediately felt a deep frown etch itself on to his forehead. "Malfoy is using the Room too? Why? How do you know?"

"I can't tell you in complete detail, but Tracey's been keeping an eye on Malfoy for some time now, saying all the while that he is up to something, and even followed him a few times whenever she got the opportunity. However, she always came back saying to me that she lost him somewhere on and around the seventh floor, which is exactly where we are right now." Daphne explained, looking up at the ceiling in thought. "Can't say for sure of course that he's also using it, but it seems to fit."

Harry felt shocked on multiple levels, first that he had finally found others besides him who actually believed that Malfoy was up to something, and second that Malfoy was making use of the Room of requirements for some unknown reason.

"No I'm sure that Malfoy also knows how to get in here after the incident." He replied in confirmation, before voicing part of his thoughts aloud. "What is he doing here?" Was he training, and practicing spells like he himself had done in fifth year? Or something else? Harry had no idea, but maybe Tracey could help if she was the one who had been keeping an eye on him for some time now.

"What? You too now?" Daphne asked with a surprised expression.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked as he looked down at her, coming out of his musings.

Daphne made some gestures with her hands. "Well, you know, thinking that Malfoy is up to no good or something, your expression says it all, and you sounded just like Tracey moments ago. She keeps going on about it, saying that he was doing something suspicious in all the time he was away."

"You don't think so then?" Harry asked incredulously. Hoping that she thought otherwise.

"Well.. I.. I don't know." Daphne said brokenly, sounding unsure as she looked at him. "I don't think Malfoy has it in him to really do anything beyond talking about threats.."

"Tracey could very well be right about him." Harry said seriously sitting up a bit more upright, hoping to convince her on Malfoy. "Listen, at the very beginning of the school year in the late summer holidays, I saw Malfoy in Madam Malkin's, where he had been very sensitive about rolling up his sleeves for even an inch while in Borgin and Burkes he wanted Borgin to give him answers on how to fix something, and threatened him if he dared tell anyone about it, by showing him something. I couldn't see what it was, but Borgin was visibly shaken by whatever he saw."

"Malfoy is a complete prat to anyone who dares touch his holiness, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him, or any of his family members at Borgin's dirty shop." She replied also rising up to a sitting positon beside him on the couch. "I don't see how these things point toward Malfoy doing anything shady."

"They do connect if you consider the possibility of him being a Death Eater spy." Harry said resolutely.

".. Malfoy a Death Eater..? Having a spy in Hogwarts would be smart, but he doesn't have it in him to be a Death Eater, Harry, he's just coward underneath all his big talk." Daphne said disbelievingly, to his disappointment. He had really hoped that Daphne would have believed him in this, but he sensed that she doubted her own opinion somewhat, because of his own confidence in his theory, and decided to continue.

"Only cowards can sacrifice others, that alone can make him, and anyone else like him dangerous." He said thinking about Peter Pettigrew. "I think that Malfoy was the one to give Katie the necklace during Hogsmeade, he wasn't there himself, but he must've let somebody else Imperius Katie to try and bring that necklace inside to give it to someone important. Dumbledore for example, or maybe even Horace, Dumbledore himself said that the Death Eaters won't be too pleased with the side he has chosen."

She looked at him for a moment, and he could see thoughts whirl rapidly through her eyes. "Not you?"

He shook his head dimly recalling that Hermione had asked the same at the beginning of their year. "Katie would have turned, and given it to me when I was near her in Hogsmeade."

"Well, I can understand the intention of the necklace for a silent assassination, but it wouldn't have been able to come inside anyway with the protections, and safety checks." Daphne said knowledgeably, knowing all about it since they managed to sneak something inside themselves.

"I don't think that Malfoy is one to cook masterplans up, so it could easily have been a mistake on his part." Harry retorted.

Daphne gave a sigh, as she looked to be torn between her logic and wanting to believe him.

"Should I and Tracey try to find out more about him going to the Room? It will give all of us rest that way." Daphne said finally, offering their help to him.

He considered it for a moment, having others near him in the dorms could be beneficial, but Daphne said that Tracey would repeatedly lose track of him, and there likely wasn't much else to discover by watching him from a distance, not to mention that they would eventually draw attention to themselves.

"No, I rather not have you two come too close, I'll occasionally check the map for his location to confirm it, and have a talk with Tracey about it." Harry said to which she gave a nod.

"Let's leave it at that for now, and focus on eating that candy of yours." Daphne said with a smile, snatching the small treat bag from the colourful table before nestling back into his side again, and digging in.

* * *

"You wanted to talk, Harry?" Tracey asked with an unusual serious expression, coming to him right after they all exited the Potions classroom, and the other students had dispersed themselves to whatever business they had.

Harry briefly glanced to Ron, Hermione, and Neville, doubting whether or not he should bring them along as they hadn't been supportive of his theory from the start, before he saw Daphne give a single nod, and he made up his mind.

"Yes, Daphne likely told you all about the Room, and what I told her, but I have some questions myself for you." He said stepping forward, taking the lead in where they would be going.

"What's going on, Harry?" Hermione asked in confusion, looking between him, Daphne, and Tracey for some kind of clarity.

"Malfoy is up to something again. Has been from the start actually, and Tracey's been the one to have kept an eye on him for some time now." Harry answered.

"I'm afraid that I don't have a lot of info though." Tracey said disappointedly.

"Doesn't matter, it'll be something." He said with a shrug.

"I'm sorry, but what's going on here?" Neville asked in utter confusion, making them realise that he didn't know anything yet.

"Follow me, I'll explain when we're outside." Harry said continuing to explain everything around Malfoy to Neville once they stepped into the cold outside air, and headed straight to an open place.

"Why are we here, Harry? It's freezing." Hermione complained after having done her utmost best not to interrupt him as he talked about his theory of Malfoy being a Death Eater.

"They might hear us in the castle. Here in the outside there is little chance of anyone being around in this weather, and will be seen easily in this open space if they are." He answered, giving the area a quick scan as he did so.

"Hear us? We can just use Silencing Charms, Harry." Hermione replied with a small frown.

"I wouldn't be too sure about that." He said not finding Silencing Charms fool proof anymore after the information leak on the book.

"When did you start watching Malfoy?" Harry asked turning to Tracey immediately after.

"I idly kept an eye on him as soon as the year had started because of his drastic change in behavior, but I really started paying attention shortly after the first Hogsmeade visit." Tracey answered.

He nodded, small details could be important to know later on. "When did you last follow him, Tracey?"

"Uh, I think it must've been two weeks ago by now. I haven't made any attempts after that in fear of him discovering me, he definitely knows that someone has been following him, since I chased him up and down stairs and corridors multiple times in my attempts to keep up with him. As you know however, I always ended up losing him on the seventh floor."

"The seventh floor?" Hermione asked softly, sharing a look with the rest of them.

"Yes, we think that he is using the Room of Requirement. I checked with my map multiple times throughout the day yesterday, and saw that during certain times he does not show up on the map, which might be because the Marauders didn't know about the Room or couldn't map it because of it constantly changing."

"In any case, can you tell more specifically during which times Malfoy went away?" Harry asked, turning back to Tracey again.

"We've seen him leave occasionally in our free periods, while he is also gone for most of the evenings, and only returns right before curfew, right, Daphne?" Tracey said looking briefly to Daphne when she finished.

"Yes, it's true that Malfoy hardly spends any time in the common room, and only returns until late in the evening." Daphne confirmed.

"Does he take anyone with him? Crabbe, and Goyle for example?" He asked looking between the two of them while Ron, Hermione, and Neville looked on.

Tracey made a gesture between yes, and no before elaborating. "He always went alone in the beginning, but now takes Crabbe and Goyle with him again. It's one of the reason I stopped tracking him, I didn't want to be caught alone by those three."

"Not that it was much of an option. I would have stopped you otherwise from doing something so foolish." Daphne replied to her friend with a look to whom said friend smiled carelessly.

"Maybe they're only using the room for some training like we did ourselves." Hermione interjected.

"I agree on Hermione there, Malfoy's less than pathetic skills could use some extra attention on his part." Ron supplied for her.

"No, yesterday I also saw on the map that Crabbe, and Goyle were standing at, and near the Room of Requirement. Malfoy probably stationed them there to keep watch after he noticed that somebody kept following him." Harry said briefly looking at Tracey who gave him sheepish expression. "Malfoy is doing something alone inside that room, and wants no one to find out."

"Regardless of the fact that he is doing something good or bad, what are we going to do?" Neville said, choosing a middle ground between them.

"I'll watch him a while longer with the map, see if we can somehow get into the room ourselves, catch him unaware, and see what he is doing so that we have evidence against him for Dumbledore, and the other Teachers to believe." Harry answered.

"Please don't go too wild on this, Harry, he is probably doing nothing major in there." Hermione said with a small sigh, as if she was disappointed that he had continued this.

Harry thought otherwise however, and looked away from her disbelieving face to stare at the frost covered grounds as the lack of answers gave him an uneasy feeling.

Harry felt stupid. He had meant to keep an eye on Malfoy after voicing his suspicions in the beginning, but had to admit that he had carelessly let it slip with all the things that happened around him, and demanded his attention.

Harry had hardly paid attention to Malfoy's presence in the classes he had shared up till now as during those he always busied himself with the subject at hand and Daphne's magnetic presence, Harry never came across him outside of class either except for during the duel with Luna, but Malfoy hadn't taken the lead there either. It simply became less of a priority over time to watch him, and more of a dimmed thought. Malfoy had faded to the background like he probably wanted to, and instead Nott had risen as a major point of annoyance and attention, effectively replacing him.

What was Malfoy doing in there..?

* * *

**A chapter to either wrap some things up or prepare them for the future. I also have to note that my update times will become longer now ( x amount of weeks). Publishing chapters weekly basically requires me to be working on them full time. I'm a bit burned out now because of that and will also have to start my University soon which will likely take up a lot of my free time once my break is over.. and it will all depend on whether or not I have the energy to concentrate and write if I do get some free time. Regardless this won't be abandoned.**

**In case you're wondering, Harry can enter the RoR because it's already quite late, and Malfoy is already back in his dorm lest he face detention from teachers &amp; raise more suspicion about his absence.**

**It's true that the Room cant conjure any real food but I don't know whether or not it can still make fake food like shown in this chapter. I simply decided it could because it's been left open and gave me a nice opportunity.**

**Thank you all for your reviews and lemme know what you think!**

**Next chapter: Entity + others.**

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**Lordban: You don't master the Dark Arts. They master you and turn you into a mockery of everything you sought to become when you justified learning them: Answer: Couldn't have said it any better. 1+ from me.**

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**References:**

**Daphne: "all of my favourites. I see that you remembered and came fully prepared." : 11**


	25. Zealous and Birth of Shadows

**Disclaimer: The Harry Potter Universe and all the characters belong to J.K. Rowling.**

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"Mortigore!" Harry spoke commandingly, firing a small and concentrated white beam from the tip of his protesting wand to his own hand, feeling it quickly go ice cold as a layer of ice began to form on his hand before spreading out to cover it wholly like some kind of armor.

The first few times had almost gone wrong as the spell nearly began to freeze his whole hand and arm in ice that continued to grow. Luckily, breaking the ice before it could properly solidify and using some Counter-spells worked well as a solution.

It didn't go as smoothly as the Opanare, but after multiple attempts paired with many protests of Daphne, he had succeeded in storing the spell in his free hand, just like the book had explained.

He turned his focus back to the work in front of him and turned his hand a few times, admiring the result with small wonder. It looked very much like some kind of chainmail glove or scaled hide that reached up to his wrist. He flexed his fingers testily, and heard the ice crack in the silence of the chamber as he moved his fingers, wondering how it seemed to stay perfectly intact despite the fracturing sounds. He didn't see any cracks in the ice, it always remained transparent.

He sank down on one knee near the water edge of the Chamber, and lightly touched the water close to his feet with his fingertips. Watching as the ice rapidly shifted downward from his hand to freeze the water in a layer of dark, blue ice that slowly continued to grow along its edges until he cut off the feed of his magic to it.

Harry had tried but found himself unable to shoot the ice from his hand as a projectile, and now came to accept that it could only be used through physical contact on either his enemies or environment. He was happy either way as this too was useful, and unexpected for any foe.

Harry was satisfied that he had managed to learn the Death Chill, albeit a bit slower than the Dusk Heal, but on the same evening nonetheless. The entity had probably been right about this supposed 'Gift' that he had... It really did seem to help him learn, and understand the Dark Arts much faster than normal as learning new Charms in class under the guidance of the Teachers still went noticeably slower than the Arts that he learned by himself.

He looked down at his Holly wand, and felt multiple emotions drift inside of him, most of them being negative. The protests of his wand had been minor at first, but now that he had really started to practice the Arts, it had become much more prominent.

It was beginning to feel like his own wand was starting to reject him, and it kind of hurt to have the wand that he had used for all these years start to work against him. The feeling inside him felt much like the one he got from Ron, and Hermione during the Triwizard Tournament where they hadn't believed in his innocence. He felt hurt, and betrayed by his close ones.

And now the same wand, his partner, and friend that had helped him throughout all these years was now starting to hold him back, and give him less than his full potential.

But he had to hold on to it, there was little to no choice, he couldn't very well walk to Dumbledore, and exclaim that he needed a new wand. Harry had never heard of a Witch or Wizard that needed a new wand, short of having the previous _broken _which was something he didn't want to do.

As far as he knew, people kept their wands for all their lives. Asking or getting a new wand would raise a lot of unwanted questions. Questions he wouldn't be able to explain without revealing things to Dumbledore that needed to be kept secret. Giving his wand off for inspection was equally bad as residential magic could be found on it leading back to the same issue.

"What's wrong, Harry?" He heard Daphne ask from behind him, making him realise that he had probably been looking at his wand for too long, giving her the idea that something was amiss. An idea she would be correct in.

He turned and saw her sitting attentively with clear blue eyes that were focused on him in a knowing look, giving him the feeling that she already knew more than he wanted her to. As usual.

He kept silent for a moment, finding it difficult to find the right words to explain it. Only to be spared the effort of doing so as Daphne's calm voice spoke out into the hollow chamber.

"You're having trouble with your wand, aren't you?" She asked, but it sounded more like a statement to him. "I can see it whenever you practice your spells here." She continued, not waiting for his answer, and bolstering her argument as she gave a small wave with her hand around them.

"Yes." Harry confessed reluctantly. "It's giving me a bit of trouble at the moment.."

"Only with the Dark Arts, right?"

He lightly shook his head. "No, I also feel it during spells like Transfiguration.. but it's most noticeable here. I'm guessing that you know what it means?"

"I can't know for sure, I am no wand expert, but the wand chooses the Wizard for who he is, maybe it thinks that you're changing, maybe your wand doesn't agree with the things that you're doing.. or where you are heading. It can be all of those things or maybe even something I can't think of as the reason." She said as she rolled her own wand between her thumb and index finger.

"Hm." Harry hummed in response. He didn't understand his own wand if it was one of the reasons she mentioned. "I'll be a dead Wizard if it suddenly decides to mess up my spells mid duel." Harry said more to his own wand than to Daphne. "It's not the time to worry about such petty things."

"I'm sure that it won't abandon you completely, Harry." Daphne said more to herself than him.

"Maybe, but right now there isn't much I can do about it besides doing nothing, I can't let anyone inspect it or ask Dumbledore for any help and explanations, lest we risk discovery."

"True." Daphne said after several moments of thinking, and she didn't appear to be without ideas as she spoke up again. "We could visit a wand shop during the holiday, and see from there?"

"..We would have a guard with us at all times. We might be able to shake him or her off for a while by making a break for it, and disappearing under the invisibility Cloak , but dodging the shopkeepers questions for my need of a new wand, and picking a new wand takes quite some time. In which the guard will have panicked and long since alerted The Order of our disappearance." Harry said as he held his hand to his chin.

Daphne nodded and frowned for a moment. "That places us in a bit of a bind.. but maybe you don't have to get a new wand if we just wait for a bit, and see what happens. This could all be just a phase in which it accustoms to the things you've started doing."

"I hope so." Harry said despite having little faith of it being the case before dropping his hand from his chin and holding it out to the book that rested securely on her lap since the beginning.

"Can I lend it for a minute?" Harry asked. "I need to read up a bit on Fiendfyre before I get started."

Daphne tensed before she shook her head in response, and he felt himself frown. "No, Harry.. some other time, it's too dangerous right now and you're going too fast."

He didn't lower his hand and opted to try again. "Last time you said we would do it later. I learned the two other spells in the meantime. Later has become _now_."

Still she shook her head, and bit her lip as she averted her eyes from him. "No."

He dropped his outstretched hand, feeling annoyance rise up in him. Why was she being such a hardhead on this? He knew that they promised she could decide what he could learn, but this was quickly becoming an hindr- The words of the entity flashed through his head again, and he didn't finish his train of thought lest he actually start to agree with it on things. Not to mention that it was horrible of him to think like that.

"Fine." He said curtly in exasperation. "We'll look for some others to learn then, and keep the Fiendfyre for later.. again."

"I know that Voldemort hunts you, Harry, and I understand that you want to protect your friends and everyone else.. but isn't this enough already? You've got some strong spells now, you'll be able to stand your own against Death Eaters with this." She replied with focused eyes that had a depth of pleading to them.

"What are you saying? Death Eaters aren't the ones I'm preparing for, and you know that." He replied with a meaningful look.

"You don't necessarily have to face Voldemort! We have the Headmaster, right? He is one of the most powerful wizards alive. Let's just forget this whole business, and leave it as it is.. your wand also might start to act normal again if you do. We'll solve multiple problems at once!" Daphne exclaimed with a clearer look of worry, and desperation as she held the book in a tight grip in her hands.

He sighed and withheld himself from blurting out thoughtless words. If only things were that simple. "It will have to be me. that's just how things will end up, Daphne. Please help me. I will be the one to eventually stand against Voldemort. I need your support."

She hung her head to avoid his pleading, hiding her face behind blond hair that fell in front of it, and shook her head again as he stepped closer to her.

He placed his hands on either side of the armrests of her chair, and leaned close to her.

"Why, Daphne? Why give me the book and then deny me its use? What was the point in us going through all that effort, and risk of getting it if you don't even want me to open it after a few days!?" He questioned her, his voice rising in volume as he went. Feeling frustration, and confusion at her actions. They finally had the book, and now she herself was the one to keep him away from it.

Was she still worried him? Didn't she trust and believe in his capabilities? He had already expressed multiple times that he could handle this or would find a way to make it work regardless. He wasn't going to turn in some kind of serial killer by practicing this!

"I didn't give you anything! I never wanted to give you this.. this _thing_!" Daphne said suddenly with a stormy look in her eyes as she rose from her chair, making him take a step back to prevent a collision with her rising figure. "I helped you retrieve it, because I was worried, and didn't want to let it out of my sight from the very start."

"My parents-no, my father alone was the one who decided to give it to you, because of the debt we owe you for the help with The Order! We both expected you to see its contents, and then be so reviled by it, like me, like everyone else in the family now that you too immediately would be done with it!" She continued rapidly and heatedly, dropping the book heavily on the table for emphasis.

He didn't speak after the silencing drop of the book, lightly surprised that she had expected him to quit, and watched her calm down as she momentarily paused by taking a breath. "I probably already expected it somewhere inside myself.. maybe that's why I felt uncomfortable with it from the very start."

"You should have known that I was, and still am fully prepared to make use of it. regardless of what I will see in it."

"Yes, well.. I underestimated it. We were wrong in that assumption, _I_ was wrong.. I didn't think that the Arts would come so naturally to you.. It's only logical that you want to keep learning more of it since it's the fastest and most efficient way for you to improve yourself." Daphne said somberly, tracing the red trimmings on the cover of the book with a finger before stopping, and making a fist of her hand. "But that is exactly where the danger lies, and you don't realise. The things that could happen. You simply don't…"

"Please, Daphne not this agai-" Harry began tiredly only to be cut off as Daphne continued.

"You don't see it in your blind zeal to become stronger, and I won't stand by idly as you walk this path without having seen the forks it can lead to!" She declared with the same strength as before again.

"Then what do you want me to do!?" He asked despairingly, throwing his hands up in the air. "Stop now that I'm finally at this point? I can't do that Daphne. I just cant. Other methods take too long. This is the way for me."

"Just...Please just wait until you meet my parents in the holidays. Especially my father, if anyone can make you understand, it would be him." She said with an air of confidence and.. sorrow.

"Why? What is it that he could possibly show me?" He questioned her, perplexed.

She shook her head in response. "Words do not carry the weight to properly explain it. We can only show you." Daphne said evading the question.

Harry didn't reply to her answer, and simply studied her tense expression. He didn't know what her father could possibly show him that would supposedly change his mind, but he could see that she wasn't going to be lenient about letting him continue until he did.

He let out a frustrated sigh. The only reason he was going to agree was because he wanted to honor his promise with her by listening to whatever things she had to say about the book, and because she wanted this so desperately. He seemed to have unknowingly worried her sick all this time. He didn't want to see her like this.

"..I'll do as you ask, and stop for now." Harry said finally, despite the urge inside him to lean more telling him otherwise. "In the holiday I will listen to whatever it is that your father has to show or tell me, but after that we will continue."

She gave a single nod. "If you still want to after that then… then it will be obvious that I wouldn't be able to stop you even if I wanted to."

"Will you allow me full access to it on my own?" Harry asked as he looked back at her for a direct and honest answer.

"Yes.. I'll give you the book if you still want it after that, and will support you, both in your training, as well as protection. Do keep in mind that those two are different things, protection will always take priority if they start to interfere with one another."

He didn't know how those two things would exactly play out in the actual field itself, but nodded to her nonetheless in agreement. It was something.

"I'll spend some time perfecting the Mortigore then, and use the largest part for searching through the immortality section with you in the meantime."

"Sounds good." She said with a small smile, looking relieved.

* * *

"How does it feel, Harry? The Gift that is. Isn't it fascinating to perceive and experience with your very own being how the Dark Arts flow, and crackle through your body?" The entity asked with his young, but haunting voice, looking down on him through the bars of his jail with his dark, empty eye sockets.

"I guess." Harry answered vaguely on purpose as he stood up from the ground he had suddenly found himself laying on again, not wanting to openly agree with the entity, as In all honesty he actually agreed with it. His practice sessions in the Chamber had been very interesting, and exhilarating. The magic that flowed through him didn't happen in the way it normally did with conventional spells. It was different. Better.

"You show much talent, and with the recent change of circumstances, I have decided to once again offer my aid to you."

"Your aid? And what circumstances?" Harry heard himself ask. Wondering what he was going to on about this time.

"Yes. The girl of course, she is using the promises you made with her against you, and is once again holding you back. Naturally I come forward in response to help you continue forward." The entity said as if it was obvious.

"There is nothing you could do for me, and I not going to betray Daphne's trust by looking into the book on my own. Not until I fulfilled my part of the promise to meet her father." He replied, glaring a bit at him for his implication regarding Daphne.

"You don't have to look into her book. _I_ can teach you. I have knowledge that you can use. This way you can still progress while simultaneously keeping your promise with her… if it's so important to you." The entity said, adding the last part a bit mockingly.

Harry already knew that he wasn't going to agree, he wasn't going to let the entity teach him anything, it was too untrustworthy. Unpredictable. He might keep his promise with Daphne through such a loophole, but he knew better than that. He would still be breaking his promise with her in all actuality.

But still he felt an undeniable curiosity, and couldn't help himself as he opened his mouth for a question.

"What would you teach me?"

"Whatever it is you are in need of." The entity answered curtly, but promisingly.

Harry looked at the shadowy appearance of a young teenager, and wondered how far the scale of that answer extended across everything he could possibly ask for.

"Thanks, but I'll have to refuge your offer. I'll keep my promise for the next two weeks, and see from there on out." Harry replied. Not feeling curious enough to act on them any further.

"The girl wants you to turn back, wants you to stop, and is a highly unproductive presence for our cause. She made you stop _again_ after revealing things she had been hiding from you from the very beginning. Who says that it won't happen again in the future when you decide to continue again?"

"Daphne showed herself to be extremely worried, but she promised to be more supportive in the future if I wanted to continue. I'll rather believe her innocence in the matter than your accusation." Harry said dismissively.

"I see." The entity simply said in response, not making the effort to make more counter arguments.

Harry walked to the cabinet nearby the cage, and laid his hand on the glass display, seeing the snake-like intricate key underneath it.

"What is this cage you're in anyway? It's not anything I myself am doing, not consciously in any case, and I know that it isn't something you yourself made as you only want me to get you out." Harry said taking his hand off the glass to look at the smoke producing being. "But that obviously isn't going to happen."

"Protections, chains, jailing." The entity replied curtly. "You view me as a threat, and so do the protections in turn."

Harry waited for more but was forced to ask after the entity didn't continue. "Is that all you are going to tell me?"

"Yes."

Harry sighed, and decided to switch subjects. "Why did you suddenly start appearing? Why not earlier in any of my other years here or even before that, if I am to assume that your statement of always having been is here is true."

"It's true. I have always been here, although not in sense as I am right now." The entity said gesturing to his body.

"You were smaller.. and younger at the start of my year, you could hardly even speak, but all that changed after Dumbledore destroyed the ring, and I absorbed the magic from it. You grew and could suddenly speak to me." Harry summarized.

"Correct. At first I had no shape at all, but that changed after your second year, after that I spend the next couple of years forming myself until I finally managed to make contact with you."

"Wait, second year..? What are you talking about?" He asked as he felt himself frown in puzzlement.

The entity didn't answer him, and instead extended his hand to him through the bars of his ebony, black cage.

Harry looked at the pitch, black hand that was seemingly made out of smoke and shadows, but made no move to do anything with it.

"Take it." The entity said after he didn't do anything with it. "As the girl said; words do not carry the weight to properly explain it. I can only show you."

Harry tentatively raised his hand, hesitated for another moment before firmly clasping the smaller hand of the entity, noticing that it didn't have a shred of warmth in him as it was ice cold to the touch.

Smoke and shadows quickly weaved around their hands after he had grasped it, and images began flashing before his eyes as new sounds filled his ears before he could make a move to get away.

He whirled through blurry images for several moments until it was suddenly still.

Harry looked around and quickly noticed that he was back in the Chamber of Secrets. Right in the moment of climax against Riddle's diary to be exact. He watched his twelve year old self on the ground quickly regain focus as Fawkes had only just healed his wound from the Basilisk.

Riddle pointed Harry's wand at Fawkes, and tried to attack Fawkes with a blast of his wand. Fawkes however, dodged it by taking flight again in a whirl of gold and scarlet.

"Phoenix tears…" said Riddle quietly, staring at his younger self's arm. "Of course…healing powers…I forgot…"

He looked into his younger self's face. "But it makes no difference. In fact, I prefer it this way. Just you and me, Harry Potter…you and me…."

Riddle raised the wand …Then, in a rush of wings, Fawkes had soared back overhead and something fell into Harry's lap; the diary.

For a split second, both Harry and Riddle, stared at it. Then, just as he remembered it, his younger self took the nearby Basilisk fang from the floor and plunged it into the heart of the book without hesitation.

Long, dreadful, piercing scream ensued from Riddle as ink spurted out of the diary in torrents, streaming over Harry's hands, flooding the floor. Riddle was writhing and twisting, screaming and flailing and then disappeared in a bright flash of light.

Harry's wand fell to the floor with a clatter and there was suddenly only silence left. Silence except for the steady drip of ink still oozing from the diary. The basilisk venom had burned a sizzling hole right through it.

Just as harry began to question himself why he was seeing this again, something unexpected happened. Something he didn't remember.

As his small appearance rested on the ground, barely conscious from the whole ordeal, a dark shape drifted up from the wound in the diary, accompanied by an eerie and haunting moaning that increased in volume and intensity as it grew bigger.

He nearly made for his own wand in alarm as chills ran down his back in realization of where he had heard the sound before. The hallways… Fawkes too seemed to realise the threat as he swooped down multiple times to try and rake, bite, or claw the appearance, but to no avail as the Phoenix went right through it multiple times.

The loud moaning had turned into screaming again, and he watched with wide eyes as the mass of shadows, and black flame rapidly descended on him. His younger self made no move to avoid the incoming danger nor indicated that he had even heard or seen it in the first place in his state of fatigue, and took the full brunt of the impact when it slammed into him.

He saw himself slump down on the wet floor again, completely limp as the chamber immediately became silent again. Only the wet sound of dripping water echoed through the room while Fawkes searchingly circled above for the enemy that had suddenly disappeared.

After several moments he saw himself weakly get up with trembling movements, before hurrying toward a stirring Ginny.

The memory ended, and he immediately took a step back, wrenching his hand away from the entity, breaking the sinister bonds that bound their hands together.

"What was that?" Harry asked with a quickened heartbeat.

"A memory of what truly happened that day as you were in no shape to properly remember, and witness it at the time."

Harry waited several moments as he took several breaths, shocked that something like that had happened without his or anyone else's knowing. That is, if the things he had just seen were actually true and not some kind of illusion again by him, but it certainly seemed to connect and make sense in multiple ways.

"Are you also some kind of imprint from the diary? Harry asked with apprehension.

The entity shook his head and replied calmly. "No, it would have been unwise to show you this memory otherwise, besides I have made no attempt at possessing you. No, I am you born from the Dark magic that started at the very same night of Voldemort's demise. The Dark magic that he struck you with transformed under the effects of the protection your mother gave you, and formed the first albeit simple remnants of what I am now."

"And since the events in the Chamber you started.. growing?" Harry said as he held his head. He felt confused and felt a headache quickly coming up.

"I suppose you could say that. It was the first portion we received, and as a result it took me several years to properly form, and evolve from the small existence that I was at first.."

"But the second time was different, I met you again shortly after Dumbledore destroyed the ring. You were already a lot different back then by being able to speak normally and having grown in physique." Harry questioned.

The entity nodded as he replied. "Correct. It was much easier the second time as I had already done much of the work, and only needed to add more to myself, and you."

"First the ring and now also the diary? Voldemort made both of them.. is that merely coincidence or are there also other artifacts who will do this to us?" Harry asked.

"It isn't coincidence. We can only absorb power from the items he created, because I myself originated from that magic, other items won't work. Only those of Voldemort."

Harry frowned. "Then the same will keep happening if more were to be found? You will continue to evolve, and grow? Are there even more of those items left in the first case?"

"There are more, and we should find them for that reason." The entity said in a tone of commitment.

"..I won't be so sure about that. You might have shown and told me all this, but that doesn't mean that I suddenly trust you." He replied calmly.

"Understandable, and for the same reason I will stay caged in here no matter how I change, and I won't lie about the fact that I will evolve, but don't misunderstand. This is more beneficial to you than me. I am only here to help you on your path."

Harry kept silent in response.

"I already told you that you become stronger by taking the magic in the artifacts. You have seen the results yourself after absorbing the magic of the ring with me. All of your spells have become stronger after that, and you even developed a talent in the form of the Gift for yourself." The entity continued after his silence.

"That's true and tempting, but I'm not too sure about letting such things enter me again. I would rather keep training instead." Harry retorted thinking back on the chilling screams of anguish from the destroyed objects.

"Training will only get you so far, Harry, you know that... You are talented, but the maximum potential of your magic itself isn't enough to compete with Voldemort's. However, the artifacts that he himself made can be used against him by serving as a source of power for us."

"Collect as many as you can find, Harry, and destroy them. We need to harvest them if we are to acquire the strength we need to defeat him." The entity said with cool conviction as he raised one of his hands and balled it into a fist.

Harry looked at him for a long, hard moment, having the entity grow further didn't sit well with him, but it was an undeniable fact that these things Voldemort made possessed great power that true to the entity's words, he could use for himself. He had seen the proof multiple times now with the ring and diary.

Harry didn't openly agree with him and opted to ask more instead. "What are those things anyway? Why did Voldemort give those items that much power only to leave them out of his sight?"

"I don't know. Maybe to wreak havoc like the diary, and punish those who would dare touch his belongings. Maybe something else entirely." The entity answered with a shrug.

Harry sighed. It was the same as in his second year with the explanation Dumbledore gave him. Maybe there was nothing more about it, and he was just overthinking things. It wasn't above Voldemort to purely enchant his items to inflict suffering on those who found them either on accident or purpose.

"The fact stands that right now you have no chance. You can train but that will only be effective until you reach your limit. The Dark Lord will overpower you no matter your tactics. You need it, Harry, or you will fail. And you know what that means. Death."

Harry felt a pang of dread shoot through him as images from his nightmares briefly gave him vivid visions on how such a sight would look like... Was the risk worth it to search, track, and take in such magic's? It was true that he didn't have the same strength as Voldemort. Mere training probably wasn't going to solve that either. There always comes a point after which you can no longer improve as you reach the limit of your capabilities.

If he were to strand at such a point, and come up short in the end, he would have no choice but to extend his limitations by whatever means necessary.

Considering what the ring had given him in the form of increased strength, and the ability to understand and learn the Dark Arts with the Gift he might say yes to that question if it were to face him.

"..I'll think about it."

* * *

**Hey there, long time no see.. or read..**

**I have bad news and bad news, great news right?**

**The bad news is that this chapter was already finished for about 90% at the time when chapt 24 came out.. meaning that I didn't write much in the meantime.**

**The other bad news is that Uni is taking up a lot of my time, the time I have left is usually spend on some brainless activity to relax and not go insane.**

**Conclusion: updates will continue to be sloooow. They'll come! .. but slooowly.**

**Have this bear as comfort ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ**

**The key in the cabinet is briefly mentioned again. didn't do so for a long time. Can't have its existence be forgotten eh.**

**Thank you all for your reviews.**

**Lemme know what you think!**


	26. Do I Know You? Do You Know Me?

I am looking for a Beta! Been for months actually...

* * *

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter Universe and all the characters belong to J.K. Rowling.

* * *

People slowly danced with each other over the large, spacious zone the wing provided for them. Some people were doing really well, others less, but those were already being instructed by Daphne, Cormac, and the others.

He momentarily stopped scanning the people around him for anyone in need of his help, and looked through the crowd of students. Quickly finding the recognizable body of Daphne as she gave pointers and tips to a pair of students that had been moving decently, albeit a bit stiffly. Using her hands, and body to help explain her instructions.

Daphne had been particularly adverse in their last meetup in the Chamber. It was nothing new but this time she had asked-no, pleaded with him to stop, and wait until he met her father. Saying that he would make him understand.

Harry had thought about it multiple times up till now, but only a few things came to mind as to what it could mean. None of those ideas were very impactful however, so in the end he was left clueless.

Daphne obviously wasn't going to tell him until then. He had already asked more about it, but she refuses to say anything further about it.

The Holiday was nearing and his visit to her family after Christmas would be even longer than that. He was a bit curious, and impatient.

He was about to continue his patrol when someone bumped into him from behind, making him stumble forward a step, luckily he quickly managed to catch himself.

"Don't stare at her bum to intensely, Harry. It won't come flying to you no matter how hard you try."

"Tracey?" He asked after he heard the voice and turned to the auburn haired girl for confirmation. "And how can you be so sure? I've been known for the occasional bout of magic you know. Wishes might come true."

She grinned at his reply. "I'll make sure to tell her you said that."

"Please don't, she'll never shut up about it if you do." Harry said a bit quickly, knowing that she'll run her mouth unashamedly again no matter the company.

"Heh, thought so." She said sounding a bit smug before she took his hand. "Let's dance for a bit if we're here anyway, Harry."

"Sure." Harry said going along with her.

"I guess I should give you a thank you." Tracey said shortly after they begun.

He frowned a bit in thought as to why she felt like thanking him. "Why?" Harry asked after nothing came to mind.

"Well, Daphne and I are used to celebrating a good part of Christmas together. Me coming over to her or Daphne coming over to me. We started doing it in second year or so after our families became more acquainted with each other."

"That's uh, great?" He said a bit vaguely, wondering where this was going.

"Oh, sorry I'm not really being clear here." Tracey said as she smiled apologetically. "It's just that I thought you would have wanted to spend it with her. Alone. By either coming over or taking her wherever you would be. You know, since you are her boyfriend now and all. But I heard from Daphne that you didn't, or at least partly. So I'm grateful that me and her can still do it this year."

"Well, I thought that she too would have wanted to celebrate it with her family and friends. Coming over myself or bringing her with me doesn't feel right. Mrs. Weasley hasn't even seen her yet, and her own parents are still strangers to me." Harry said with a bit of a smile himself.

"Guess that it would be pretty awkward for you too, yes." Tracey said with a thoughtful look before seeming to realise something. "It's not that I don't want to you celebrate Christmas with her in the future though! Next year I could stay with my own family, and come over the year after that, or maybe we could do it all together, or-"

"-It's okay, I get what you mean." Harry interjected reassuringly. He could understand that she wanted to celebrate it with Daphne. She had done so for years. Sometimes he too felt a bit jealous of Hermione celebrating it with her own family and wished for her to be there with them in the Burrow.

"You two spend it this year, and next year we'll celebrate it together. All of us if possible. It's not something for just me, and Daphne alone. It's for family and friends right?" Harry replied, genuinely hoping that something like that would be possibly between the Weasleys and their families in the future.

"Yeah, that would be great. Imagine the chaos." She said with a small laugh before she looked a bit embarrassed. "Ergh, I only now realize that I probably sounded pretty selfish this whole time. Basically saying that I'm happy about the fact that you wouldn't be coming over during those days this year.."

"Don't sweat it. If anything I'm the one intruding here." Harry said, shrugging it off.

"Now you're being a bit harsh on yourself." Tracey said, sounding relieved that he hadn't been offended by her.

"Hm." Harry hummed in response, not really giving a clear reply before switching to something else. "Say, Tracey." He began still half in thought.

"Yes?" She asked curiously as to what he had on his mind.

He doubted that it would be of much use, but decided to give it a try anyway. She might know more about it than he currently did. or at least have some kind of clue. "I don't know how much Daphne tells you about the meetings we have, but as of recent we tend to slip into.. debate about my 'training'"

Tracey's expression fell a bit at his words, signaling that she knew, and had caught on.

"She asked me to put it on hold, saying that she needed show me something that would make me reconsider it all. I asked for details, or just.. _something,_ but she won't tell me more than that, she looked quite troubled however, like it was some kind of last resort."

"And you want me to tell you more about it?" Tracey asked with a look, making a long story short.

"Yes. Whatever you think you can tell without betraying anyone's trust of course. I'm not here to cause any fights." Harry replied not beating around the bush. He was curious, yes, but didn't want to cause any problems for Tracey.

"Pretty Slytherin of you there, Harry." She said with a small inclination of her head before looking thoughtful for a moment. "I can't say I know for sure, but my guess would be that it's about her own family and their past with the Arts. Especially her father. But that's just my guess. I could be completely wrong."

"Her father? He didn't do much with the Arts right? He rejected it early on." Harry said looking back to her in slight surprise.

"Early on? Well it depends on what you view as early, but I think it had been during the end or mid his teen years… However I can't say for sure. I think you can understand that it never was a subject we talked much about. Not even during all the years that I've known them."

"I'm pretty sure that Daphne told me otherwise." Harry mused. Did Tracey remember it wrong, or had Daphne given him.. _misleading_ information about her family to begin with? Either way the fact that it seemed to involve her own father personally felt more likely now.

"Oh. Then I guess I already said too much, eheh." Tracey said sheepishly. "But don't worry about that stuff! You have much more pressing matters at hand young man!" She energetically continued as she suddenly gave him a tug in another direction as if it would allow her to change topics.

"How so?" Harry asked a bit distractedly as he nearly bumped into a few others.

"The party, you silly! It's only a few days away from now!" Tracey said in a mixture of shock and disbelief at him.

It hit Harry in a rush as soon as she said it.

"Oh, yes! Of course. I just momentarily forgot. The days just fly by you know." Harry said laughing it off awkwardly, imitating the same sheepishness she had displayed a moment ago.

"Uh-huh.." She replied in an unconvinced manner. "You better comply to her every whim throughout the whole evening you know, Daphne probably doesn't show it in front of you, but she's been counting down the days very impatiently. She always smiles a bit wider every morning whenever she looks at the new date. It's so adorable." Tracey continued with a grin at the memories.

Harry also smiled at the thought and nodded. "Will do. She put a lot of effort into it, that's for sure."

The last remaining days quietly passed by after that. He continued to check on Malfoy's position from time to time, watching him disappear from the map as he went into the Room of Requirement while Crabbe and Goyle remained outside.

During the times in the Chamber of Secrets he and Daphne spend their time looking through the immortality section of the book for info. Sadly much useful information regarding their case wasn't seen yet, and it would soon have be put on hold with the Christmas break was coming.

His exercises with Somniamency however, were coming along decently. Having to concentrate on unpleasant memories wasn't all that great but doing it would serve him in the future for when the real training would start. Which wasn't too far away anymore.

* * *

Harry heard the ruffling of clothes from Neville and Ron in the background as they were occupied with getting dressed while he looked at his reflection in the mirror and twisted his upper body to get a better look of his new clothes.

Clothes that fitted perfectly, signaling that Daphne's measurements had been spot on..

Its colour scheme was a dark red with simple black. Much like Daphne said they would be at the very beginning. He had only gotten them from Daphne just hours before as she had thrusted the package of carefully folded fabric into his hands before disappearing again to get ready herself, telling him again he would look 'dashing'.

She probably waited for the last moment on purpose so that he didn't have any other choice but to wear them. Always the hard way with her.. It didn't matter either way, he would've worn them for her regardless.

"Wow, Harry. It's quite different from the Yule Ball." Neville said in slight surprise after he made the final adjustments to his own bowtie. Neville; whose hair was a bit slicked back tonight, wore a tuxedo robe that looked pretty simple and standard with a few, small design changes that deviated from the usual.

"It is.. Thanks." Harry simply said as he looked back one last time to his reflection, feeling mixture of discomfort and liking to the style.

It wasn't anything like a tuxedo. Nor was it a robe like Dumbledore always wore. It rather looked like a mixture of the two of them. His sleeves weren't all that long and flappy. His legs also weren't hidden underneath cloth like a robe normally would do.

He had some sort of overcoat that went just past his hips from the front while the cloth was longer at the back, much like a small cloak that ended in a tip.

The colour design was simple and he found that it blended with the attire perfectly. Not plain but nothing extravagant or ridiculous looking either.

The end of his cuffs and rimming's of his clothes were embroiled with red linings that almost seemed to shine and light up a bit in contrast to the jet black background it was crafted on.

It wasn't anything he would have picked out on his own, the style was much too different than the standard tuxedo he initially would have gone for, these were real high standard wizarding clothes and fashion.

But he didn't hate it, Harry had to admit that, he would be lying otherwise. Daphne was right and had good taste..

"Good thing it's you in those, mate. Anyone else would have given me the rich snob vibe from a mile away." Ron said as he tugged at the collar of his robes, already disheveling them a bit to get more comfortable.

Harry turned away from the mirror as everyone was ready, not even bothering to try and tame his hair. It was a lost cause anyway, any time spend on it would be wasted.

"I think you will be getting that feeling regardless tonight, Ron. Slughorn chooses his company carefully.." Harry replied in response. It was unlikely that he would be the only one like this. Or at least he hoped so. He didn't want to stand out like some kind of peacock either. The scar on his head already did enough in that regard.

"Ah, yeah of course." Ron said unenergetically before quickly looking at himself through the mirror behind Harry with a somewhat uncertain gaze. "Say.. this doesn't look stupid on me, right?"

Harry took another quick look at him and shook his head truthfully. "They're fine, Ron."

Ron wasn't wearing any brand new ones. Harry's own tuxedo from the Yule Ball had never been much of an option for Ron as they all had grown considerably with Ron still being the tallest. Simply getting him in them without ripping it in two would be a considerable challenge.

A good guess would be to say that he had gotten some old robes from either of the twins again. Luckily for Ron, they weren't all that flamboyant and looked pretty inconspicuous. A big improvement from the last ones if he said so himself.

"Yeah, a lot better than the Yule Ball's." Neville said in reassurance after a look, voicing Harry's thoughts aloud.

It seemed to relive Ron somewhat as his shoulders relaxed a bit.

"Good. I don't want to embarrass Hermione throughout the whole evening by looking like a complete twat again." Ron with a bit of a smile.

"I don't think that isn't much of a problem to her." Harry said only half-jokingly. Thinking about the times at dinner where Hermione would try to converse with Ron. But then again, his eating habits have gotten a bit better as of late.

"Yeah, she's probably used to it by now." Neville supplied, joining him.

"Ha. Ha. Very funny. Let's all make fun of Ron! Wankers." Ron grumbled good naturedly before moving away toward the door. "Let's just go and wait outside. We started pretty late, they should be nearly done by now… right?"

Harry briefly exchanged a look with Neville who simple shrugged in response as if to say that he kind of agreed before following Ron.

Harry made to follow them, but stopped himself when he noticed that he had almost forgotten something.

Turning back to the mirror he quickly picked up the mask that he had placed there earlier and briefly inspected it again.

Fred and George had done a great job on making the masks to the descriptions Harry had given them as he now held a mask that definitely had the theme of a raven, and mostly consisting of black and red colours with gold and dark red serving as the fine linings and details.

It covered more than half of his face, leaving only his mouth and chin uncovered and had small black feathers at the top, but lacked the beak like form masks like these usually had so that it was 'Snog-Compatible' as the twins had described in a note.

Even Daphne had given words of appreciation and admiration for their work when he had handed over hers.

"You coming, Harry!?" He heard Neville call out from the back of the room with a beckoning gesture. Indicating that he needed to get a move on.

"Yeah!" He called back, idly hoping that the mask would help him from being swarmed by curious and questioning people as he moved to follow Ron, and Neville with a flutter of his clothes. Better not risk Daphne getting there first..

He exited the changing rooms and quickly rejoined them in what seemed to be a waiting area as there were multiple seats and couches lined up to the wall. A few feet away stood a large door that would likely lead them to the heart of the masquerade.

He, Neville and Ron weren't the only ones waiting here, there were also other males silently waiting for their dates by either leaning against the wall in a relaxed pose or sitting somewhere while they twiddled their thumbs impatiently.

Harry couldn't see their faces, they were all wearing their masks already, making it hard for him to judge their age, but he could tell that it ranged from their own age to that of adults judging by their builds.

Knowing that now was the right time to do so, he put on his mask, smiling a bit when he saw that Ron, and Neville followed suit with their own.

Having it on quickly fell to his liking as it gave him the same sense of security like the invisibility cloak, even if it was only in a lesser form by having his scar and face concealed from being out in the open.

"So, I just.. stick this to my face?" Ron said slowly, eyeing the inside of his mask suspiciously like it would explode in his face if he tried it on.

"Yeah, they all have a small Sticking Charm on them. Don't worry, they don't malfunction.. Most of the time at least, there have been a few reported cases in the past, but nothing major." Neville replied from behind his black and white mask that mostly hid the area around his eyes and forehead, ending up not being all that reassuring toward the redhead.

"It's fine, Ron. I specifically asked them not to do anything to them for once. They owe me." Harry said, briefly removing his own mask for proof before putting it on again to show that it was perfectly fine.

"I'll kill them if my face ends up being blue tomorrow." Ron muttered before finally putting it on. showing a mask with a more wide design, matching his attire in an odd way. Letting out a small sigh of relief when nothing happened in the first few seconds that passed.

Harry guesses that Ron had gotten a lot of items from the twins throughout his innocent youth that did more than just that, growing up to be highly suspicious of any kind of item the twins produced and handed over willingly.

Harry looked back at Neville again as a sudden but obvious thought came to him.

"..Who are you going with, Neville?"

The young man clad in black and white was about to reply but closed his mouth again as he seemed to notice something behind Harry.

"Geez, Harry, You're so blind sometimes. Waiting with your friends, but unaware of who is coming with them?" The voice of Tracey chastised in a fake indignant tone from behind him as she poked him in his side, catching him unaware and causing him to twitch in response.

"Ouch.. sorry, sorry. I'm not.." He began apologetically only to trail off in amazement as he turned, and got his first look at them.

Tracey had her usually straight, chestnut brown hair up in a bun, and was wearing a simple, smooth yellow dress. Over her dress were multiple lines of small stones that sparkled alongside the ones on her mask that strongly resembled a rabbit as two pointy, fluffy ears were included.

"Y-you look stunning, Tracey." Neville kindly offered with a small blush, still stumbling a little in complimenting girls so directly.

She smiled brightly at his words. "Thanks, Neville!"

Hermione was a whole different sight again in her dark blue dress with frills on the shoulders and hips. He could easily see her shiny and straight hair from behind her heart shaped mask. Definitely some magic there, he thought idly as he ran a hand through his own hair in wonder.

"You two look great!" He truthfully complemented them as Hermione went to a sputtering Ron, who was trying to bring out the same words so that he could compliment her while Tracey went to stand next to Neville, silently answering his earlier question.

"Thank you, Harry." Hermione said with a shy smile as she simply took Ron's arm. Luckily taking his loss of words as a compliment.

Tracey gave a little courtesy with her dress in response. "You guys aren't too shabby yourselves."

"Was Daphne nearly done when you two left?" He asked, even more curious for his own date now that he had seen them.

"Never spur on a lady, Harry. For us, getting ready is like cultivating a flower bed. We need delicacy and time." Tracey said with a raised finger before dropping it and shrugging. "Or something along those lines. Daphne was the one who said to pass that along to you."

Harry crossed his arms. "I do hope she means normal flowers and not the ones from Herbology. Those often put up quite a fight."

"Well, you can ponder about that in the meantime, we'll see you two inside." Hermione said with a knowing look to Tracey before they and their partners left him behind as they entered the doors with another masked pair that passed by.

Harry sighed, and continued to wait after that, watching other pairs go through the doors, causing sounds of glasses, feet, laughter, and chatter to burst out energetically whenever it opened again. From time to time he seemed to recognize a few people, but it was hard to be absolutely sure when most of their features were hidden.

So far things were looking good. Nobody seemed to recognize him like this. They just went about their own business and only saw a young man waiting for his date whenever they looked his way. No Boy-Who-lived or Prophesized one. That was enough for Harry.

It was also an relief to see that some pairs also had matching suits, indicating that he and Daphne wouldn't be the only ones to show their status of partnership-or rather, relationship.

"You know; patience is a petty form of agony, disguised in a shell of value." Came the all too familiar voice in a light tone, causing him to turn his head to the direction it came from.

Harry was about to reply with words already on the tip of his tongue, but suddenly found himself empty mouthed as he took in her appearance.

He had little facial features available to recognize her by, but he had no need of them. The form of her body, way of moving, smell, manner of speech, and tone could only belong to one person.

She was wearing a red and black, floor length dress with occasionally designs of black flowers running over the entire length, and around the midsection. Her neckline showed some of her cleavage that was already distracting to him as she usually either wore their school uniform or some form of a closed shirt. Detailed straps went over her shoulders and around her neck to hold her dress up, her upper back was open and on one side of her dress was a slit for her leg with black lace side panels.

Her hair looked clean as always and was wavy with soft curls at the tips of her hair, at the side he saw something glint, and realized that she was wearing the Frozen Luck they had potted during their Herbology lesson weeks ago. It must've bloomed not too long ago, after which she had probably left it untouched for this night specifically.

"Do I know you?" She asked with a bit of a smug smile on her red lips, seemingly peering through him with slightly darkened eyes of her make-up, making her blue eyes stand out all the more from behind her mask that looked much like his own except for the fact that it was shaped more elegantly.

"Yes, you do. Or I hope so at least." He said with a light laugh. He wanted to tell her a thousand times how good she looked, but didn't. Not yet. Instead he just took her appearance in and answered her questions.

Azure eyes shone with amusement at his reply. "Do you know me?"

"I do. Luckily." He replied with a genuine smile, ignoring the occasional glances from the few people around them.

Briefly a small, but wistful smile formed on her lips before it was replaced by a more happy and genuine. Making him wonder whether or not he simply imagined it.

He silently offered his arm to her, which she took in her gloved hands without thought or hesitation, only organic movements and decisions.

"You look beautiful. Breathtaking." He said softly to her. Just between the two of them before opening the door.

Her grasp on his arm became a bit more secure while she looked sideways to him from the corner of her eyes as the multitude of sounds from the party assaulted them.

"Of course I do. Its me after all." She said with certainty, but he could see the corners of her mouth twitch in a suppressed grin of the compliment, and her eyes give him the simple 'thank you' her mouth couldn't utter.

Harry smiled at her, and looked back in front of him to see one of the most… interesting sights of his life so far.

There were quite a lot of people in all kinds of attire, some wore the simple, traditional black and white tuxedo like Neville. Others were dressed much like Daphne, and himself in expensive and good looking attires, while the occasional odd ones seemed to take a turn to the more amusing side of the coin as he saw masks of all kinds of animals, and creatures pass by with either matching or completely different suits ranging from dull grey to rainbow mixed colour schemes.

The whole space of the room was obviously enlarged to encompass them all much like they had planned to do. In the distance he could see open doors leading to more different rooms, likely for some peace to talk with food and drinks.

Everything seemed to be in the theme of the 18th or 19th era as the floor, tables and walls were all finely detailed and mostly consisted of brown, red, and beige colours. In the air some feet above everybody's heads, lazily floated orbs of light as an additional source of light besides the candle posts.

"Look up." Daphne said from his side, already staring up at something.

He followed suit and saw what could only be described as an enormous painting depicting a room very much like their own with a lot of inhabitants of the paintings in Hogwarts dancing and partying with each other.

"I guess that the paintings were jealous of the Yule ball and complained?" Harry commented whimsically.

"They did actually. Some Sir Cadogan suddenly came up to me some time ago, and started preaching about it in word puzzles as soon as he discovered that I was one of the representatives." Daphne revealed to his surprise. "I simply presented it to Horace. Seems like he found it to be a good idea."

Harry smirked a bit in memory of the eccentric knight and looked back down again. "It looks great in any case."

She didn't comment, and silently turned back to him with a look of excitement in her eyes.

"Come on, Let's go." Daphne said with a sudden burst of energy, grasping his hand and pulling him more toward the center of the room where other couples were dancing.

"Whoah, there. We still have the whole evening!" Harry replied without any real seriousness in his voice, laughing a bit at her sudden sprint.

"Time will fly by. You'll see." She retorted with a soft giggle before putting one of his hand behind her back while she held on to one of his hands and placed the other on his shoulder. "Come on. You know this one."

Daphne was bursting with energy and luckily he could comply by taking her in a fast Quickstep, sweeping with her across the dance floor, half of the fun being the task of avoiding others while staying in rhyme with their own.

"Tracey, not so fast! I'm nearly losing my shoes here!" Came the distressed plea of Neville as he and Tracey suddenly emerged from behind a few other people.

"Oh, don't be a wuss, we're totally fine!" Came the dismissive and laughing voice of the leading girl before noticing her other friends nearby with a smile. "Hey guys! Finally decided to join did we?"

"Best for last." Daphne shot back with a grin before saying her goodbye her again as they spun away. "See ya!"

"Help me, Harry-!" Called out Neville's drawn out, and already fading voice from inside the background noise of chatter and music.

Sorry, but you're on your own now. Harry thought, giving him a mental salute.

"There's Ron and Hermione." He said after a few seconds of moving, already seeing the other pair of their group in a much more controlled pace than Tracey and Neville. Slowing himself and Daphne down a bit as they got closer.

"Hey guys. Looks like it's going pretty smooth." He complimented them, although mostly Ron as he had made the most improvements during their lessons, having started off the worst.

"The food here is great, Harry! you should try it." Ron said while nodding in amazement.

"You already ate something?" Was the first question that came to Harry's mind.

"Pff, duh!" Ron responded with a face that said it was the most important, and logical thing to do in a situation like this.

Hermione rolled her eyes at her partner. "A better way to word it is to say that it looks great in here, so fancy and spacious! The Enlargement Charms must've have been used in great abundance. Or few, but powerfully."

"I'm pretty sure that Horace knows a few Wizards, and Witches who are specialized in that area, and called them over to help out." Daphne answered, likely having been let in on a thing or two, before pulling him along again. "Anyway, we'll see you later at the beverages in the next room."

"Couldn't wait again?" He asked raising an eyebrow questioningly, before realizing that she likely couldn't see it with his mask on.

"Patience is a lesser form of agony." She replied simply raising her chin in a sign of defiance, having caught on to his tone nonetheless. "You wouldn't want me to suffer, right?"

"Well, I did promise Tracey to try and listen to you tonight, so I guess I'll keep it for tomorrow." He replied in an uncaring, and lazy tone.

She smiled disbelievingly while giving him a penetrating, and knowing look simultaneously from underneath her mask.

"You can't even fool yourself by saying that." Daphne replied before coming a bit closer, her smile changing into that signature devilish grin again. "You'll always comply to my wishes, Won't you, Harry?"

He grinned in response. "That's probably how it will be at the end of the day."

She didn't bother to say more after that and continued to dance with him.

* * *

She and Harry continued to dance for some time, but eventually got tired and left the floor for some refreshments, starting a new discussion between them.

"Its fine, Harry. I can hold my drink." Daphne said in response to his needless concerns grabbing the small glass from his hand with the red liquid in it. "Have one yourself too."

"Hmm.. I remember it quite differently from during one of our Slug-Club's, namely you going red in the face from one or two glasses, but if you say so." Harry replied with a skeptical glance toward her, completely unconvinced.

"I didn't go red in the face." She retorted at him. Ok, she might've have gotten a little warm in the head, but that was all..

"Look." She said for emphases before downing the glass in one go. Feeling her throat burn, and eyes water as she fought to keep herself from coughing so that she didn't show her blunder.

"Yeah. Nailed it." He remarked sarcastically as he nodded, unfortunately having caught on to her internal battle.

"Something just got in my windpipe.. that's all…" Daphne tried as she felt a bit woozy from downing it so quickly, but found that Harry only gave her half an ear by now as he turned back to her with a small glass of water.

"Want some?" He offered more as strong advice rather than a question as he brought it closer and closer to her.

"No, I.. Well.. I guess I'm still a bit thirsty.." She said only after a moment of hesitation, silently, and gratefully drinking the water to calm her throat, and head.

"Over here, Neville!" She heard Ron call out, looking behind her to see Hermione next to him while he waved over the Longbottom heir and her own friend to their position.

Well there goes the alone time.

"There you are, have you even seen some of the people around here!? I could show up here in my pyjamas and not stand out!" The redhead said with a laugh. "I swear that I saw someone dressed like a garden gnome moments ago. I almost kicked the man on reflex."

She watched as Harry laughed in response, and gave his friend a reply she didn't quite catch.

Daphne didn't really know what to think of Ron. She knew that for a long time he held her in a hostile point of view without really knowing her. Fortunately that slowly changed as he got to know Tracey better during the lessons, and realized that they weren't all murderers in secret.

Daphne knew that she probably had been the reason for a few of the clashes Harry had with his friends in the recent past, but seeing Harry talking and smiling again with Ron; the one who likely reacted the most extreme almost had herself question that thought.

Harry was probably just too kind, and forgiving for those he cared about.

She and Ron were by no means best friends, but rather shared some sort of neutral ground. His initial hostility told her that at the very least he was protective of what he currently had, and it was good to know it was for that simple reason.

"Everything going according to plan?" Her auburn haired friend asked with a smile after she grabbed a bit of food from a nearby table.

"Yes, I suppose it's quite satisfactory thus far." She replied in an overly calm tone, acting like it was just within her bounds before returned the question back to them. "Having a good time yourselves?"

Tracey mischievously looked at her exhausted partner that currently stood with Harry, and Ron to rest up. "Neville can keep up quite decently tonight."

"Ron also stopped stepping on my feet somewhere during the lessons so that is one concern less. For now I'm mainly keeping him from taking in too much booze." Hermione answered with a knowing smile before taking a closer look at her.

"Is that the Frozen Luck from the Herbology lesson?" She continued with a look of surprise on the features that she could still see after recognizing what the accessory on her hair actually was. "Do you notice anything from it? Mine completely failed during the lesson.. I'm not too sure about Ron's. I think it's still growing."

Daphne unconsciously touched the small flower she had attached onto her hair a few hours prior. She didn't notice the effect all that much, but at least it looked beautiful. It had six leaves spread out in a symmetrical shape, each of the leaflets were seemingly made out of crystals, since they were unbendable and glittered in an wide array of colours whenever light would shine upon it in the correct angle.

"I don't know." Daphne began earnestly in response to Hermione's question and Tracey's curious gaze. "I can't say that suddenly everything is going ten times better than before, I'm sure that I would have enjoyed everything up till now just as much without it."

"I guess that's a good thing overall." Tracey replied with a small shrug while Hermione smiled.

"Oh by the way, I've seen Trelawney around here in a costume oddly reminiscent of a death reaper." Hermione said warningly to her before elaborating when Daphne simply gave a confused look. "Harry used to take Divinations, Trelawney will predict his doom, and death in all kind of manners whenever the opportunity arises. Suffice to say that he didn't have to think long on what subject he wanted to drop."

"I guess Harry was able to make one predicted future come true at least; never returning to that class." Tracey joked.

"Thanks, I'll look out for her." Daphne answered already scanning the nearby crowd. Hearing predictions on how Harry would die wasn't something she would ever be in the mood for. No matter the legibility, and source.

"How did everything go with Hermione by the way? I take it you managed to ask her out a bit decently?" She heard Harry ask his red-headed friend when she focused a bit on him again.

"Fantastic, mate! I took her to the lake some days ago, just the two of us like you said, it was cold as hell with all the snow, but I guess that only made it all look pretty romantic and stuff."

"Who would've thought.." Came Neville's slightly sarcastic reply in response to Ron's answer.

The Longbottom heir was really starting to speak up more often, she thought it to be a good change for him. Having some friends was doing him good.

"Ah, Harry m'boy! So here you are, come with me, come with me, I have people who are just dying to meet you!" Suddenly boomed the voice of Horace Slughorn as he pressed himself through a few people to get closer.

It was hard not to notice his presence now that he was in the vicinity. Their Potions Professor was wearing a mask that was mostly brown with long appendages at the top with some sort of eyeballs dangling at the end. It looked very much like a snail, or dare she say... slug. To complete the look he also wore a brown robe with a wrinkly pattern that came to his knees, and ended in loose threads.

Well, Horace finding them had to happen sooner or later, they actually managed to stay under the radar longer than she initially expected.

"I better go before I lose Harry for the rest of the evening." Daphne said apologetically as she secured her spot next to Harry by taking his arm again and smiling at the cheerful man.

"Good luck." She heard Tracey call out.

Horace briefly narrowed his tipsy looking eyes at her in concentration when he got close enough before laughing, and extending his hands to both of them in some sort of hugging gesture.

"And Daphne, of course! I must say that you look absolutely marvelous tonight! Both of you do, it's even better that the two of you are together, like spells and incantations, a matching pair! I believe Eldred, and Sanguini to be just a few steps away. You might know them? 'Blood Brothers: My Life Amongst the Vampires' say anything? No? Oh well enough time to chat about it!" Horace excitedly rambled as he gripped one of Harry's shoulders and led him away from the others.

"There are old colleagues of mine all around here. Not to mention important tradesmen, and women for all kinds of goods. Remember the embalmed Grindylow I talked about? Tonight is the perfect opportunity to have some of those goods yourself! There is also Adrian for pictures of course. We have to capture these moments." Slughorn continued, completely deaf to the protests that came out of her boyfriend.

"Horace!" She called out, quickly relaxing again when she noticed that she had gotten his attention. "Harry and I would still like to have time for ourselves tonight."

"Oh! Why of course, of course. The night is long, there'll be plenty of time left, this will take only a moment." He replied in a surprised tone, likely not even having considered the thought.

"How did he even know it was me?!" Harry briskly whispered to her, not all that happy about his hidden identity failing him.

"I'm not even going to try and think about it too much, he can probably sniff you out from a mile away like a bloodhound." Daphne replied nonchalantly… Truth was that she had given Horace a description beforehand. Can't expect the man to go to such lengths for them without a reward.

"That's good to hear, Horace. The maximum is three people." She said with a sweet, and calm tone of finality, focusing back on her Professor.

"Three what?" Asked the leading Professor questioningly to her response.

She stuck up three of her gloved fingers for clarity. "We will meet, and greet three people of your choice. No more." Complying to his wishes didn't mean for the whole night of course. She too still had things she wanted to do.

"Three!? You're horrible Daphne! This is like having to choose between your own mother and father!" Horace exclaimed looking absolutely appalled in response, having likely thought about showing them off to around thirty people or so instead of three.

She fought the urge to roll her eyes. "We won't disappear from the face of the earth. There will be plenty of chances in the future."

"Three people.. what to do, who to pick.." Mumbled the Professor in contemplation as he already was in his signature pose of twirling his mustache, before making up his mind, and pulling them in a different direction. "One of them should be Eldred, he is willing to write a whole book about you, imagine the publicity! Next should be Tiberius, you might remember that he is Cormac's uncle, as for the last one.. Well, we'll just have to wait and see what comes up!"

"Yes, I can't wait." Harry said unenthusiastically, giving her a look of great anguish and pain of what was to come, only making her laugh a bit.

"Neither can I, m'boy, neither can I." Horace sighed longingly, not catching on to Harry's sarcasm.

* * *

**Lemme know what you think!**

**It's been 5 whole weeks! I hope that 26 had been entertaining to read.**

**blueper: went back and corrected it (hopefully) had no idea those were 2 different words!**

**Next chapter will be part 2 of the party... I can't fit it in one chapter!**

**One of the ideas I currently have for my next story is to have it centered around vampires. Female vampire lead with Harry actually remaining human instead of also turning into one. But that is all just loose ideas for now, I won't start writing a new story before finishing this one first.**

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**References:**

**Multiple small ones throughout the chapter, but nothing of major importance.**


	27. Weasleys' and Dursleys'

**Disclaimer: The Harry Potter Universe and all the characters belong to J.K. Rowling.**

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**Many thanks to TabiPrewett for Beta'ing this chapter!**

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"And then he suddenly said to her; 'Interested in making some magic together? My wand is at the ready!'" The third, and final _important_ figure exclaimed as climax to his story before bursting out in a boisterous laugh with an even more drunk Horace in tow.

Harry tried to laugh with them, but it probably looked like he was going for the 'fakest smile of the year'. Luckily for him it went unnoticed in their induced state. Daphne on the other hand managed to pull one every time in a conserved and genuine manner, he could probably learn a thing or two from her there.

"Well, it has truly been great, but I'm afraid that I just saw one of the Carrow twins pass by who I just _have_ to catch up with, bye!" Harry said not very apologetically to them, quickly taking Daphne's hand and taking them away into the safety of the crowd.

"Uurrgh, only three people, and I already want to jump off one of the towers here. At least that way I have a quick death instead of this slow paced cremation." He moaned out painfully when they were finally away and safe from the boasting pair of men. "I might've gone crazy if you hadn't restricted him to just three."

"Don't worry, Harry. I know the limits of your mind." Daphne replied also looking quite relieved to be away from it all, and could drop the charade. "I am sure the pictures that were taken will turn out nicely and that Horace will likely send us a few copies."

He gave her a bit of a wry look. "Wow. Worth it."

"Don't be so pouty, Harry. You only end up being more adorable." She said with a grin. "If only I could pinch your cheek right now."

Harry gave her a look in return. "Shut it. I know that you've been impatient the whole time. I'm pretty sure you stepped on Eldred's foot on purpose when he started asking me questions that were a bit too personal."

Daphne idly toyed with a strand of hair as she replied in her most innocent and oblivious voice. "I don't know what you're talking about. The man simply had big feet, they were impossible to avoid. Besides, I truthfully apologized with all my heart."

He laughed at her explanation. "Sure, sure. It made me feel very proud and grateful in any case."

"I think you should feel that way all the time." Daphne replied with a small huff as she smiled at him.

"Maybe I-" He began, but trailed off as he spotted something in the distance. A few figures. One balding and haggard looking and one with platinum blonde hair that could only belong to one person in Hogwarts.

"It's Malfoy, and Filch." He said simply already moving toward them. "I'm going to check it out."

"_We_ are going to check it out." Daphne said with a look toward him, quickly falling in line next to him.

* * *

She, and Harry waded their way through the crowd to get closer to his newfound goal. On the way there Daphne happened to recognize the dress of Hestia who they had just used as an excuse moments ago.

No time for pleasantries she thought as she looked back to her leading boyfriend, the muscles in his jaw, and neck set in tight concentration while his eyes looked ahead in hard determination.

"You can't fool me; I know the names, and faces of everyone who is allowed to be here." She heard Filch say with absolute glee of having caught Malfoy red handed when they came within hearing range. "You aren't even dressed for it, Malfoy, but it doesn't matter either way. Mrs. Norris can weed you out like a stinking fish in the baking sun. You can't hide from us."

Daphne could only think to herself that Filch was probably the real bloodhound here, not Horace.

"Unhand me! Fine I admit, I wasn't invited!" Malfoy replied angrily, ripping his shoulder out of the caretaker's hand with a look of distain toward him and the hissing cat at his feet.

Filch didn't even seem to be listening all that much to Malfoy's excuses as he grabbed his shoulder again and started pushing him forward. "Doesn't matter either way, goldilocks, you're coming with me to my office."

"We're losing them, Harry." She said to him as they remained hidden between the other attendees.

"It's fine we can catch up to them in a moment. I have the Cloak with me." Harry said back to her, leading them away from the party, and throwing the Invisibility Cloak over them as soon as they entered the now deserted corridor.

"We still need to keep our distance. Mrs. Norris might smell us if we get too close. Trust me; I know out of experience." He whispered to her after taking off his mask.

She followed his example, and took off hers. She had no choice but to speed up her pace to keep up with Harry so they could try to catch sight of them again. Her heels clacked noisily against the stone floor beneath their feet, but luckily the sounds of the party nearby helped mask it.

Daphne still wasn't completely convinced of Malfoy being a Death Eater, there were plenty of reasons to believe either side of the coin, but it mainly just felt so surreal. The thought of having someone of their own age and year joining Voldemort's army to either spy in Hogwarts or try and assassinate a person like Horace or the Headmaster was one she didn't _want_ to believe.

It would present a big threat, and difficult to handle problem if it were to be true.

"Snape!" Harry almost hissed when he saw her head of House further down the hallway with Malfoy and Filch.

They couldn't get much closer yet, Mrs. Norris was still close to Filch, and would likely smell or hear them with her animal senses if they came too close.

Her guess would be to say that Snape would help Malfoy out again as always, but Malfoy didn't look happy or smug at all when Filch lost his smile, and walked away in bitter defeat of losing his prey.

She was sure that Harry also couldn't hear what they were saying from this distance, despite the heightened state of focus he was in.

Snape proceeded to urge Malfoy inside, and shot one last look around the corridor, letting his eyes glide over their position before shutting the door with a bang.

"Quickly." Harry said next to her, guiding them as swiftly and silently as he could toward the door Snape closed seconds ago. Pressing their ears against the wooden door to hear what they were saying on the other side.

"Who suspects me?" Asked Malfoy angrily. "For the last time, I didn't do it, okay? That Bell girl must've had an enemy no one knows about!"

She heard a reply from Snape she couldn't understand, he always spoke in calmer and softer tones.

"I'm not trying to conceal anything from him; I just don't want you butting in!" Malfoy's voice came louder and heated again. He was feeling attacked for some reason. Didn't Malfoy always show respect to his Head of House? What happened?

"So that is why you have been avoiding me this term? You feared my interference?" Were the first words she could make out from Snape.

"Because I don't want you to steal all the glory, that's why!" Replied Malfoy.

"Listen to me," Said Snape his voice suddenly dangerous, and warningly. "I am trying to help you. I swore to your mother I would protect you. I made the Unbreakable Vow, Draco!"

She felt her eyes widen at his words, and looked at Harry to wordlessly confirm whether he also heard it, getting a single nod in return while he continued to listen on attentively. His eyes staring ahead of him as he concentrated on the sounds.

"What does it matter?" said Malfoy when she too focused on the sounds inside again. "Defense Against the Dark Arts.. it's all just a joke, isn't it, an act? Like any of us need protecting against the Dark Arts with the-"

"-It is an act that is crucial to success, Draco!" said Snape. "Where do you think I would have been all these years, if I had not known how to act? Now listen to me! You are being incautious, wandering around at night, getting yourself caught, and if you are placing your reliance in assistants like Crabbe and Goyle-"

"-They're not the only ones, I've got other people on my side, better people! I don't need your help. I have a plan." Malfoy interrupted again.

A pause lingered before Snape spoke again. "You are speaking like a child. I quite understand that your fathers capture and imprisonment has upset you, but-"

She nearly let out a sound as Harry suddenly grabbed her without warning, and pulled her away from the door to stand deathly still against the wall next to the door.

Not a second later was the reason for his actions revealed as the door flung open with Malfoy immediately striding out, and down the corridor until he rounded the corner, and vanished out of sight.

She felt Harry's heartbeat hammer against her back, but hardly heard him breathe, she only knew by the light breezes of hot air that were blown onto her neck periodically.

Snape slowly emerged from the classroom, and she hardly dared to breathe for fear of being found out. His face was completely blank, showing nothing of the whole ordeal on his features. After a few long seconds he started making his way toward a new destination away from them, allowing her to relax again.

"Malfoy definitely was the who got that necklace in Katie's hands; he was obliviously lying against Snape. Not to mention that Malfoy admitted to plotting something. Snape even wants to help him!" Harry said seriously after he released her from his hold.

She looked at his eyes, seeing a hundred thoughts race behind them rapidly. "It definitely points that way after hearing all that. Something is going on, no doubt about that. But maybe Snape also wants to know so that he can inform the Headmaster?"

"Snape isn't on our side; he just wants to appeal to Voldemort like Malfoy said." Harry said with a scowling look on his features.

Those two really hated each other with a passion…

"That doesn't explain why he made an Unbreakable Vow with his mother to protect him though. He could've done without it. Right now it seems to be forcing him into things with Malfoy not even cooperating." Daphne said half in thought. Was Draco really a..?

"It doesn't matter why he took it." Harry said dismissively, breaking her out of her thoughts as he led them away and back to the party. "Fact is that Malfoy is plotting something, and Snape wants to help him with it."

"..True." Daphne replied after a second. Right now it's safer to assume that Malfoy is one.

* * *

She saw that it was pitch black outside when she glanced at the frost layered windows. The evening had flown by, and it had become late already. Things would soon start closing down… In fact, some were already leaving in a slow but steady pace.

"Everyone has become shady this year…" Harry muttered close to her ear when they were back on the dancefloor of the party in a slow dance. "Malfoy with all the time he spends locked up.. Snape wanting to help him with whatever he is trying to do.. Dumbledore's constant riddles and Nott's contradictive lack of actions." He continued.

She slightly pulled back from him so that she could look him in the eyes "Nott?"

He nodded. "At the beginning he was adamant at coming between us, but as of late, especially after the incident at the Shack and fight in the hallway. It just stopped. Like he wasn't even really trying to do so in the first place."

She gave a thoughtful sound in return. "They were all one time occurrences, yes. Maybe he just gave up.. you did roughen him up. What do you suppose otherwise? You think he also got something to do with it all somehow?"

"I don't know. It just seems a bit timed out, like we were just being hindered and distracted." Harry said with a heavy sigh.

"It's hard to say. Maybe it's just the paranoia speaking right now." She said softly, watching Neville shuffle by with a tired Tracey in his arms. She always was the bright, but short term type of candle.

"Possibly." He replied broodingly.

"Don't ponder pointlessly about it for too long. Leave it for when we get back from the Holidays. There isn't much we can do right now." She said stroking his cheek to try, and calm his demeanor.

Harry didn't make any rebuke, but she knew that he would continue to think about it. He simply was like that.

"I-" He began only to stop as he stared at something to her left with an indescribable expression.

Daphne followed his line of sight, and saw his friends, Ron and Hermione, softly kissing, and completely unaware of their surroundings.

She could understand his reaction, he had always been aware of their development, even helped them, but was likely still shaken by the sight of his longtime friends together in such a vivid, and unshakable scene of reality.

Daphne took his face in her hands, and turned his head back to her. Smiling encouragingly when she saw the conflict in his emerald eyes.

"Nothing stays the same forever." She whispered before kissing him, feeling relieved when he relaxed, and pulled her closer.

* * *

Harry sat in the now Christmas decorated living room with most of the Weasleys that were present in the house. Bill and Fleur were further away in a corner, talking about working abroad. Fred and George were occupied in a game of Exploding Snap with Ginny.

Harry had been quick to tell Ron what he and Daphne discovered during the party, being able to finally convince him more to his side of things. Now only Hermione was left as he had gotten only little time to tell her before she went off to her own family. It resulted again in Hermione sticking close to her own vision of Snape not being a real Death Eater, but at this point it could also just be her stubbornness talking.

He and Ron were currently tasked with peeling sprouts in preparation for Christmas while Mr. Weasley was reading an old newspaper which he actually wasn't paying much attention to as he kept glancing at Mrs. Weasley who was solely focused on the ticking clock and burning fireplace.

Why is it that the Weasley matriarch is so fixated? The answer is quite simple, his girlfriend, Daphne Greengrass is supposed to show up at the Burrow, and step through the fireplace any second now.

His arrival and first day at the Burrow hadn't been a great one, Molly had been clear in showing her displeasure in both his actions of involving other families into the Order without Dumbledore's consent, and choice of love interest… meaning anyone besides Ginny.

He took it without complaint for the most part and was comforted by the fact that Ron had informed her of Daphne's arrival beforehand by writing a letter to explain everything. Allowing the news slowly to sink down and give her some time to process it.

A few minutes later the fireplaces suddenly roared in green fires, causing him to immediately drop his tools for sprout peeling and make his way over while the other inhabitants stopped their activities to look on curiously for their expected guest.

Daphne deftly stepped out of the fireplace and dusted a bit of sooth off her clothes before smiling tentatively at them. "Happy Holidays and sorry for the intrusion. I'm Daphne Greengrass, pleased to meet you."

Arthur was the first to put away his unread paper, and rise up from his chair to smile warmly at her. Taking her hand and shaking it. "Arthur Weasley. Just call me Arthur, and my wife Molly. Happy Holidays to you too, dear! Harry already told us quite a bit about you, it seems like you've been a big source of support and help to him."

"Thank you." Daphne replied looking to be relieved by his friendly attitude, simply taking the compliment.

"Molly Weasley." Mrs. Weasley said shaking her hand after Arthur stepped away. Giving her along and searching look from top to bottom, as if it would help her determine her whole personality. "Please do try to keep Harry out of trouble."

Daphne briefly looked his way before letting a small, wistful sigh. "I rather concentrate on protecting him, trying to avoid trouble with Harry is useless after all."

"I suppose so." Molly replied a bit coolly as Harry grasped Daphne's hand in his. Now he knew what it felt like to be Fleur and Bill.

"There she is!" Fred exclaimed somehow managing to dive out unseen from behind Mrs. Weasley despite being much taller than her. Thankfully breaking the tense atmosphere.

"The picky princess with a description list longer than all the Ministry-Arse-Kissing compliments a certain Weasley exile could possibly come up with!" George continued. Appearing in much the same way his twin did.

"Percy is no exile. He's just.. away for a while." Molly said blandly to them, still looking to be having trouble with it.

"Sureee." Both of the twins drawled sarcastically at each other before whipping their head back to Daphne.

"But color us surprised when we heard that Harry managed to find such an unorthodox girlfriend! Not Gryffindor, Ravenclaw or even a puff, but Slytherin! What kind of magic did he use? What kind of master is he to pull this off? But more importantly; can he also teach others in his ways? Commoners like _us_ for example." Fred questioned dramatically.

He and Daphne both opened their mouths to speak, but were stopped by a serious looking George.

"No! Don't speak... Look Fred, the answers are in her eyes." George said pretending to peer deeply into Daphne's now amused eyes. "The Chosen One never stood a chance.. The outcome was determined before it had even begun."

"Ok knock it off you guys." Ginny said breaking them up effectively before extending her hand to Daphne. "We've seen each other in school a few times, but I'm Ginny as you probably already guessed."

"Likewise." Daphne answered politely as she took Ginny's hand.

Introduction with Fleur and Bill continued in much the same way, but not without sharing a secret look that said 'I know how you feel' serving to warm the atmosphere between them.

The next few days passed by with them preparing the final Christmas decorations.

Mrs. Weasley filled most of their days by evenly splitting up chores throughout the day. Most of the times this meant that he and Daphne got separated much like Bill and fleur, but they usually circumvented this half of the time by secretly changing the assigned chores with the others.

Of course there was still time outside of the chores, and he would often spend it with Daphne or everyone else as a group by playing a bit of Quidditch or having snowball fights in the backyard.

Harry didn't see much of Mr. Weasley throughout the remaining days though, he was working very long hours at the Ministry, Harry could only guess how much of a mess it must be there. The disappearances were few, but always continued in a steady pace.

* * *

The final morning came faster than she thought it would've. Spending most of your day by doing all kinds of things around the house with Harry's surrogate family served to do that.

Daphne hadn't been quite sure what to expect from the whole family, but could happily say at the end that it had been a more enjoyable experience she initially expected it to be.

Mr. Weasley- or Arthur was a very kind man, she immediately noticed that from the beginning and quickly took a liking to him over his wife as he greeted, and treated her with no regard to either her Slytherin or family background.

Mrs. Weasley, whom she continued to call as such to be safe, was a bit of an annoyance throughout her days at the Burrow as she was a bit cold and standoffish to her. Not to mention how she tried to keep her, and Harry separate through her deliberate choices of chores.

Luckily that slowly changed a bit throughout the days Daphne spend there. Just a bit, and that was enough since it meant that she could eventually prove her worth and be accepted by even the Weasley matriarch. Even if Mrs. Weasley was the only one who still had to.

Ginny was someone who really helped keep the twins in check, and took much after her mother, albeit in a more positive way. They even shared a few conversations on how Ginny used to have a crush on Harry, and lightly laughed at how silly her reasons had actually been at the time. Ginny had been only a little girl at the time so Daphne couldn't blame her for doing so when she met her 'hero' in person.

The twins, and Ron too actually, had been a welcome presence too as they always provided some relief and distraction whenever things got a bit awkward again with Fleur and Bill fawning over each other in broad daylight.

Speaking of Bill and Fleur, they too were people she could get along with whenever they weren't all over each other of course. Bill often had interesting topics with his career with Dragons while Fleur's haughty attitude from time to time was relatable to her… She wondered why.

Under her feet and around her lay freshly dropped snow. The sky overhead was clear, allowing the sun to shine brightly, and help fight off the cold temperatures of the winter morning.

"You two ready?" The early retired Professor Lupin asked of them, holding his arms out for them to take.

She had been quite surprised to see him show up at the Burrow the night before, and explain to Harry that he had been away for such a long time to try and infiltrate large Werewolf groups. Bringing the unfortunate news that they were likely to join Voldemort's side, thinking they would be getting better lives for themselves.

"Yeah." Harry said a bit tensely. Did he still think she would come to see him differently if he showed her more of himself from the Muggle world? Silly.

She sent a small but encouraging smile Harry's way, hoping to silently reassure him. "Ready."

They each grasped one of the arms he offered and tightly held on to it when the familiar feeling of being squeezed through a tube briefly raced through her body before it vanished just as quickly as it came.

She let go off his arm and opened her eyes to see that they had Apparated in a dark and deserted alley to ensure that no one would see them appear out of nowhere.

"You can just walk out and let me know when you are ready to return, Harry." Lupin said as harry regained his bearings. Looks like he wasn't used to it yet.

"Don't worry. We'll be fine. We'll see you tonight." Harry said as he made to walk out of the dark alley with her.

"Not so fast. I'll walk with you until you are both inside. I know how your relatives can be sometimes." He replied almost apologetically.

Harry answered by giving a humming sound of agreement. They didn't speak during their walk to his house, giving Daphne the opportunity to get her first clear look of the surroundings now that they left the alley.

Unnatural perfection were the first words that came to mind as she looked around the neighborhood. It was as if someone had placed optical illusion between every few houses as they were all made in the same boxy style with the same drive up and the same pavements. The only differences between each of the houses lay in some of the snowy plants in the front gardens and interiors inside that weren't closed off by curtains to keep prying people like herself out.

"Here." Harry said pulling her attention elsewhere when he turned right, and walked up to one of the identical houses.

Number 4. She thought idly. Looking away from the small number on the wall when she heard rumbling noises inside of the house from what sounded like heavy objects being pushed around. Up the drive stood a blue car with its trunk wide open and inside where multiple trunks and bags stacking up.

The door to the house was wide open and soon an overly large, fat man wobbled into view dragging another trunk behind him. The fact that he was wearing winter clothes against the cold weather outside made him look even more pudgier and round.

"Petunia, Dudley!? We need to get going, who knows what kind of traffic we will have today. We don't want to miss our flight to Spain now do we? We also need to stop for food and dr-"

He stopped talking as soon as he noticed them. The color in his exhausted, red face quickly started to deepen to crimson for unknown reasons before promptly continuing his task by dragging the trunk to his car and throwing it on the other ones.

"Going somewhere Mr. Dursley? I'm sure that we informed you of our planned arrival. Reasonably timely as well." Lupin said in a tone of suspicion as he looked at all the items the Muggles were stuffing into the car.

"It's not my problem if the freak comes home to sniff around the very moment we plan to leave!" He retorted curtly, slamming the trunk of his car closed with more than a little effort as it was over encumbered. Breathing heavily when he turned back to them with a glare.

Was he talking about Harry..?

"Who is it, honey?" Came a new and female voice, who she presumed to be Harry's aunt. The women, tall and skinny, had an absurdly long neck that seemingly towered over her shoulders as she stared down at them in scrutiny.

"Oh." She said simply. A look of understanding dawning upon her face when her eyes went over each of them before lingering on Harry. "So you came after all."

"Of course we did. We said we would." Lupin replied keeping his calm but looking increasingly annoyed by their ignorant attitude and rude reactions.

"We just thought it to be some sort weird kind of joke that was funny for… your kind." She said stiffly, puffs of condensed air blowing in short spurts through her nostrils.

Their.. kind? Was Harry's own aunt talking about Wizarding people like this? If anything _they_ were the unusual ones here..

"How long will the ride take, mom, the car is always so cramped.." Whined a third voice as a miniature version of Mr. Dursley trudged out of the house before momentarily freezing in either fear or shock when he saw them.

"Are these people?" He began tentatively, his beady eyes wide open.

Mrs. Dursley nodded sharply. "Yes, dear, just get into the car and wait for mommy and daddy. We will be there in a moment."

He didn't need to be told twice as he went behind the backs of his parents and bolted into the car faster than she thought possible for someone like him.

"We don't have time for any of you! Go back to where you came from, we are leaving!" Mr. Dursley spat out with a body temperature so high she thought he was going to start steaming soon in the cold outside air.

"None of you are going anywhere until a solution is reached; catching your flight is now your problem, not mine. We had an agreement, and you will uphold it." Lupin said resolutely.

"You dare trespass on _my_ house and demand that we let you do whatever you want while we are gone!?" Mr. Dursley said venomously as he raised a threatening finger to Harry and Lupin before closing in on them with snow crunching footsteps.

"Honey, we shouldn't stay here for too long, the neighborhood might.." Mrs. Dursley said meekly, glancing around the deserted streets with a look of paranoia.

Mr. Dursley however, didn't seem to hear her in his tirade.

"You think that we will just put up with it everything you people dump onto us? Not even the Christmas Holidays are safe to us now! Don't blame us if we decide to take another route in response! He can freeze outside for all I ca-"

His borderline mad ravings were abruptly cut short when Lupin decided to draw his wand, and point it at them.

"It probably doesn't mean much now anymore, Harry, but I'm sorry that you had to- no, still are forced to live with these people… I know what it's like to be forced to keep returning to unpleasant places." The Professor said with regret as The Dursleys' jumped back in fear of the wand, as if afraid that he would kill them on the spot in cold murder.

If harry heard Lupin, he didn't show it. He just stared at his relatives with the most disconnected look she had ever seen on his face.

"You're right. It doesn't matter anymore, It's all in the past now. I might still see them for one or two more summers, but after that, never again."

"Ungrateful. After everything we did- no, still do for you." Mr. Dursley ground out through clenched teeth, giving her the strong urge to punch all of them in the face. She didn't even know these people, but already hated them with a passion.

"The spare key is in the most left flowerpot. Lock the place before you leave, and don't break anything!" Mrs. Dursley said hastily in a shrill voice, grasping her husband's arm and urging him to the car when Lupin lowered his wand, satisfied with their answer.

"At least it'll be quiet for you two this way." Lupin said morosely as the car with the Dursleys's slowly went past them in reverse before driving off, and disappearing down the corner of the street behind another row of equally boxy houses.

Harry sighed, looking relieved now that they were gone. "Yes, that's a plus, thanks."

"Well, I'll be in the neighborhood in the meantime. There is also Mrs. Figg here to warn the Order if anything major was to happen, but that is unlikely. Good luck, Harry.." Lupin said politely before walking away to hide somewhere unseen.

"Mrs. Figg?" She asked as Harry dug a bit in the cold, and hard dirt of the flowerpot Mrs. Dursley mentioned.

"She's a Squib who has been watching over me from the very beginning. She's in the Order. I only discovered that not too long ago." Harry explained coming back up again with an old looking, bronze key and using it to open the recently locked door.

"Welcome to the home of the Dursleys'." He said with a grimace as he held the door open for her.

She stepped inside the house and was relieved when Harry closed the door behind her to shut the cold wind out.

She got her first real look of the inside of the house as she and Harry took off their thick winter coats. The walls were unmarred from any kind of damage or discoloration. Multiple portraits hung on the walls of the three Muggles who had thankfully left. She didn't see a single one with Harry in it. The wooden floor beneath her feet was also shiny and spotless. The furniture and kitchen were exactly the same. There wasn't a single spot within eyesight that had any wrongdoings or even dust on them.

Absolute perfection to be the best of the neighborhood... What a wonderfully tasteless and cold atmosphere to live in she thought sardonically to herself.

"So.. You grew up here?" She asked as the clock in the kitchen ticked periodically in the silence that hung. Finding it difficult to imagine a small and smiling Harry running around in this place after her first experience with his relatives. Were those people really family of Harry? She would have laughed if anyone would have asked her without Harry informing her beforehand.

"I did." Harry said as he walked forward into the kitchen. "Want something warm to drink?"

"I- No I'm fine." Daphne answered softly, at the moment she didn't really feel any kind of human need. She wasn't hungry, thirsty, warm or cold. Just some weird state of detachment from the moment they set foot on the property of this house.

"Any friends? Or were all the boys and girls copies from each other like the houses here?" Daphne tried with a bit of a smile.

"Nah, not me. Dudley made sure of that." Came his neutral reply.

She found her endless well of comebacks to be surprisingly empty all of a sudden.

"Oh."

The ticking of the clock was obnoxiously loud right now.

"..Well, I'm supposed to show and tell you the Muggle Harry so it's probably best if I start recounting and mentioning some things as we go." Harry said as she followed him into the living room, their footsteps softly tapping on the floor.

"I've lived here for as long as I can remember. Dumbledore left me here shortly after Voldemort's body was destroyed. The Dursleys' never told me what happened to me, or my parents." Said Harry in a flat tone laced with underlying bitterness. "..Said that my parents were a bunch of drunks and died in a car crash. Never more than that, probably so that I stopped asking them about it."

"I had no one to tell me otherwise. For years I believed them, believed that my own parents died like that. The truth was of course that they had actually fought for me until the very last second against a force they couldn't hope to match. Murdered."

Daphne didn't reply. Harry was talking about things that were obviously very difficult for him. She didn't dare speak in fear of breaking the spell. She just slowly followed him as he looked at multiple pictures and items in the room. Thinking.

"Petunia, my mother's sister, despises me for her own reasons. She's the same as Snape… Vernon is simply afraid of things he doesn't understand. They never loved me, can't even imagine it anymore, but a little bit of sympathy or humanity wouldn't have hurt."

"Half of my youth consisted of doing chores while the other half was spent outside. Hiding from Dudley and his friends who always tried to beat me up. This also served to keep others away from me of course, because doing so would also make you a target. Funny how history repeats itself." Harry said with an empty smile before lightly shaking his head, as if it would help clear his mind from the memories only he could see.

"My names were Freak, Worthless, and when Aunt Marge occasionally visited she added to the variety of names. I would either stand here and be something of a butler, or spend my time locked away." Harry said stopping on a spot next to a big armchair and small coffee table before moving back to the kitchen.

He briefly indicated toward the fridge and stove. "One of the chores was to always make breakfast for them in the morning and have whatever was left for myself, they would always complain whenever it was slightly burned.."

Harry didn't linger long, and he was walking again before she could react, merely letting it sink in already took most of her time.

"And this." He began before pausing as he looked at the small door beneath the stairs with a vacant look. "And this is where I slept until I went to Hogwarts."

She looked at the door again underneath the stairs. That wasn't a room.. it was just some small, cramped space where you would stuff all kinds of useless items into. Discovering them again years later when you finally decide to clean the place up.

He opened the door and leaned over to take a quick look inside as if expecting something besides all the junk in it before closing it again with a click.

"Seems like they're using it properly now." He commented flatly. "A few agreements were made after my introduction to the Wizarding world, and I got my very own room. Come on, It's upstairs."

He was on the move again as she looked back between him and the cupboard. "Harry wait, you can't.. I don't.."

How could your own family treat you like this? No, family didn't even matter anymore. How could you treat any child like this?

She grasped at straws and struggled to find the right words. The right questions. Why did this happen to you? How could this have happened? Why didn't anyone intervene?

..How can you _not_ grow up to be a monster like Voldemort?

Harry had told her about his lessons with the Headmaster, and she now saw how his childhood was nearly identical to Voldemort's. They grew up without friends, without love, and without a home.

Harry had every reason to hate these people, to just snap and make them suffer like he did. But he didn't. Even now he took it silently, but not without emotion. It was all just crammed away like the junk in the cupboard under the stairs.

She felt guilt wash over her. He was revealing all these horrible things about himself that completely exposed his greatest weaknesses and shames to her, to Daphne Greengrass, the first person he probably ever did so with.

And she still had her own story to tell.. One that meant little in comparison to his, but one she had misled him about nonetheless, lied about to increase her own chances. To improve the image he had of her in fear of the petty mindset that he would come to look differently at her.

How ironic. Harry was the one here who was afraid of those things, afraid that she would look down on him now that she knew how he grew up, but he couldn't be further away from the truth, she only admired his strength more now.

She quickly made her way up the stairs to catch up to him, and found him standing in a cluttered room.

Wooden boards creaked underneath her feet as soon as she entered his room.

A weathered and uncomfortable looking bed stood to her right. The walls were blank and only a few, beaten up pieces of furniture stood in the room to fill up a bit more of the space the chaotic room provided. Papers and old books were scattered around on the floor and his desk, a few of the crumbled headlines reading 'Harry Potter: The Chosen One?' and 'Protecting Your Home and Family Against Dark Forces.'

"So. now you know." He said looking at some of the scattered papers with a tight and controlled expression.

"I do." She said trying her best to smile at him before giving up in her attempt and sighing. Pushing away some of the items on the ground. "It doesn't matter, Harry. The reason I'm being silent is because of the shock. If anything, I admire you even more now for still being able to grow up to be such a kind, and self-sacrificing person."

"Not at all, Daphne. If anything I take away from others." Harry said shaking his head in denial.

She let out another sigh through her nose as she briefly looked through the old window at the clear, dark blue skies outside, seeing the small speck of a lone bird soar in it.

That's precisely what I mean, Harry.

"So, how do you feel about it? About this place, about them, about everything?" Daphne asked vaguely gesturing to the rest of the house downstairs. She needed him to tell her everything. For his own good; to release the final dam.

"Nothing positive. I'll never be able to get along with them. I don't think that I can forgive them. Not even if they would be truly sorry for what they did to me during all those years, again and again."

"The insulting names, humiliating clothes, biased treatment, needless bullying, slavery…. the whole UNFAIRNESS of it all from start to finish.." Harry ground out, his volume increasing as he spat out the final words that seemed to sum up and dictate his whole life, before relaxing a bit when she grasped both of his hands in hers. Hoping to calm him.

He shook his head and sighed. "But I know that already, I have for a long time. Life isn't fair and things will happen you have no control over."

"I always think about it that way and try to stuff it away in the back of my mind, because if I don't, I just.. I just feel so.. angry, bitter, furious, resentful.. I feel this nearly uncontrollable urge to just.. lash out, _destroy_ something." Harry said with a face that rapidly changed from sadness to anger as a flash of smoldering hatred flashing before his eyes.

She hugged him and barely contained her sob, hoping to give him all the love and support she could possible send into him. To make him understand, to make him feel.

Harry's arms soon encircled her to return the embrace while he buried his face into her neck and hair with a shuddering sigh before breathing her in.

"Let your tears wash away the past and cultivate the seeds of your future, Harry." She whispered, stroking his dark hair.

He laughed humorlessly for a second, before clearing his throat. "I guess you're right, sorry, but I'm fine now." Harry said moving away to release her.

She didn't let go however and continued to hold him close. There was no way anyone could be fine with growing up like this.

"No, you're not... Please, I won't think any less of you." She whispered near his ear, raking her hand through his unruly hair as he relented and sank back into her. "It's okay."

This time he didn't hold back, and held on to her with a near desperate grip as if afraid that she would disappear if he let go.

She smiled sadly when her neck became slightly wet. "Nobody will know, Harry."

Daphne felt her own eyes dampen and hoped that today would be his last here or that at the very least, she had given one good memory to think about next time he found himself in this cold, empty room.

One of understanding, love and compassion.

* * *

**Pretty sad chapter, eh? Decided to release it pretty soon because chapt 29 was pretty much filler. Sue me, I get lost in their interactions from time to time.. besides I need to have something to show for it after first introducing it in chapt 11 right? x)**

**Next chapter: Return to the Burrow &amp; visit to the Greengrass family.**

**Bit of a chance encounter with Malfoy and Snape, but changing the events wasn't all that important to me. the piece of information gained had to happen.**

**Minister of magic normally came to visit harry during the holiday in canon, but there wasn't much for me to change there, and I saw little importance in the scene by itself unlike the one with Snape here so I left it out.**

**Speaking of Little Whinging, lemme know what you think, to me it was an important scene. It's often not touched upon, but I find it important for someone like Harry, who's in a relationship, to find comfort and release. Especially since he could have taken a definite turn for the worst in his youth there. Like Voldemort.**


	28. Introductions and The First Locket

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter Universe and all the characters belong to J.K. Rowling.

* * *

"Harry wake up! It's morning!" Ron said excitedly, shaking Harry awake before diving to the end of his bed. Opening packages fervently with ripping noises.

Morning! Presents! Harry thought quickly coming out of his sleeping stupor, already seeing a hazy pile of blocky shapes at his feet. He quickly sat upright and put on his glasses after fumbling around for them a bit and jumped out of bed.

The window in Ron's room was nearly completely white. Snow was either iced against the glass or stacked up against it in a heap of snow. The outside wasn't much different. Freshly fallen snow covered the grounds of the backyard.

"Not another one.." Ron moaned, pulling out a new handknitted sweater with a lion on the front from Mrs. Weasley. His face a picture of foreboding. He knew that he was going to have to wear it all day.

"Classy." Harry replied smiling when he saw a similar package for himself from Mrs. Weasley. Feeling warmed by the fact that she also made one for him again. The shirt itself was embarrassing to wear of course, but it made him feel part of the family.

He quickly started to open his packages. His presents included an expected sweater from Mrs. Weasley with a Golden Snitch worked onto the front, a large box Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes products from the twins, a new Wand Polishing Kit from Ron, and a Wand holster from Hermione he could attack to his hip.

"Thanks, Harry!" Ron said holding up the new piece of gear for his Keeper position in Quidditch Harry had given him while holding a similar looking wand holster in his left, likely from Hermione.

"Same to you." Harry said gratefully, picking up the last present he had left. A small box with a tiny note attached to it, his name was written on it in a curly handwriting. He didn't need to guess who it was from.

He broke off the red ribbon that held it together and curiously flipped open the note to read it before looking at the present that came with it.

'I know that it might not be very manly to show off to your friends, but please keep me close. Daphne.'

Growing more curious as to what her present was, and what she meant after he few but warming words. He grabbed the box and opened it, letting a small oval coin with a chain attached to it fall into his open hand.

He turned it around in his hand and noticed that it was actually a small, golden locket with engravings of small runes along the edges. He didn't knew if the engravings truly meant anything or were simply meant for decoration. He pressed the small button at the side and watched it flip open deftly.

Inside was a picture of them briefly having their masks off to smile goofily at the camera before sharing a kiss and laugh. It was one of the pictures they had taken during the masquerade when the serious attitude of all the other pictures that came before it with Slughorn's guests had become too much for them.

He smiled at the memory closed the locket, and put it around his neck. It wasn't going to come off for a long time. He was sure of it.

"Say, Harry." Came Ron's voice, strangely tentative.

"Yeah?" Harry asked already feeling the locket rest comfortably against his chest. The metal was cold but quickly grew warmer against the temperature of his skin.

"I, uh, wanted to thank you, if it hadn't been for your advice and all. Hermione and I might not have.. you know.. gotten together." Ron said with difficulty scratching his head as he thought about how to word it.

"It's fine, just don't screw it up." Harry said truthfully, if they were to be break up it would likely be extremely awkward and difficult for all of them. It was one of the things worrying him the most from the moment he noticed their budding feelings but hopefully things didn't go down that road.

"I won't.. and if I do, I can ask the ladies' man, right?" Ron asked recovering quickly, looking pointedly at the hidden locket underneath his shirt, and giving his shoulder a light punch.

"Shut up and put on your sweater, Ron." He said quickly making Ron's face lose its grin and turn sour instead.

Everyone wore Mrs. Weasleys' handcrafted sweaters that day, everyone except Fleur however, on who Mrs. Weasley likely didn't feel like wasting her time on, making Harry feel kind of happy that Daphne was with her own, and Tracey's family right now so that she didn't suffer the same problem of exclusion.

Christmas dinner came and they were soon all at the table piling up their plates with Mrs. Weasley cooking for the last time that day.

Fred and George, who were overjoyed at the fact that they could use magic freely now that they were of age, made pieces of Ginny's food fly away from her plate to their. Earning dark glares from her. Bill and Fleur on the other hand were much too busy with each other to notice the others around them, like a gagging Ron for example.

The atmosphere was good.. for the most part. Mrs. Weasley continued to occasionally shoot all kinds of looks and glances around. Glances of annoyance at fleur who was currently feeding Bill bits of turkey, accusing glances toward Lupin since the topic of Tonks celebrating Christmas alone had come up, and worried looks toward him between all of that.

"So, you went back to visit your relatives with.. with Daphne. Back to the Dursleys, right? In Little Whining?" Mrs. Weasley asked a bit out of the blue as she suddenly looked at him. Sounding like it had been on her mind for a long time. Which it probably had been.

"Molly.." Arthur began in a lightly pleading tone, appearing to already know where this was going, causing everyone to stop and pay attention.

"Not now, Arthur." Mrs. Weasley quickly replied back, making it seem like they had already talked about this before with little result.

"Yeah, we did." Harry said simply, answering her question deciding to keep it simple. He didn't feel comfortable with explaining the events of Little Whinging.

"Why did you go back to those horrible people with her in the first place, Harry?" Mrs. Weasley asked sympathetically. "I'm sure that you didn't want to, anyone else here could have gone in your stead or even come with you if you needed to pick up something from there."

"Thank you, but it wasn't something you could have helped me with, Mrs. Weasley. We had some business to take care of." Harry said pushing a baked potato around on his plate with his fork, making little clanking sounds as the others looked on.

"Business.. what business? You didn't go anywhere dangerous afterwards In secret, right?" She asked pressingly, dying to know details. Briefly looking at Lupin as if he was obliged to tell her if that had been the case.

Mr. Weasley spoke up reassuringly to her worries. "I'm sure that it was nothing of the sort, besides Lupin was there with them. Nothing serious could have happened without us knowing."

"It's as Arthur says, Molly. We simply stayed there for some time and left sometime later again." Lupin said calmly. Wanting to lessen her inquisitiveness.

Mrs. Weasley wasn't so easily stopped however as she turned back to him when Lupin proved to give little information. "Then what-"

"-Mom, please. Just leave it, it's obviously got nothing to do with us. If Harry doesn't want to talk about it then, that should be fine." Ginny cut across, dropping her tableware with a light clatter and a short but heavy sigh.

Harry was getting pretty sure now that this wasn't a first for the others either.

"N-nothing to do with us? Harry is practically family, it's got everything to do with us!" The Weasley Matriarch exclaimed looking incredulously at them all.

"Of course Harry-kins is family! But we all have our own problems and secrets." Fred said while George continued. "Yeah, just like when Ron found that magazine of a very sexy w-"

"Shut up!" Ron yelled interrupting them with a reddening face and shifting eyes. Pointing his spoon threateningly at them.

"Arry can take care of 'imself." Fleur said surprisingly speaking up for him. "He doesn't need babysitting. 'Arry showed me 'zat a long time ago during 'ze tournament."

Mrs. Weasley didn't look happy at all when even Fleur decided to speak up against her, and took a long swing of her wine before putting it down a bit harshly, making it splash dangerously in her glass.

"Fine." She finally said, making them all sigh and relax in relief.

"But.. you'll be spending the remainder of the holiday with the Greengrass family." Mrs. Weasley began again on a slightly different topic, appearing to be more than just a little bit bothered by the fact, making some of the people around the table groan.

"I am. I view all of you as my family, and Daphne came here to learn more about you for that reason. Now it's my turn to know about hers. It's quite important I go there." He said looking at all of their silent faces before settling on her.

"Oh, Harry." Mrs. Weasley said softly laying a hand on her chest, touched that he truly viewed them as family. "You're absolutely right about that, and I think Daphne to be nice enough of a girl, but I don't think.. that you should.."

Mr. Weasley was about to speak up again but Harry silently asked him not to with a small shake of his head.

"That I shouldn't do what? That I shouldn't continue my relationship with her? Why? Didn't Daphne do her best when she was here with us, didn't you see how genuine she is?" Harry asked. Why was it so difficult for her to give Daphne a real chance?

"I do see that Harry, but I really don't think that it'll.. work out in the end." She replied tentatively, trying to carefully word her beliefs.

"I think otherwise. Even so those will be my own mistakes to make if I ever happen to be wrong about it." He retorted flatly, growing a bit cross with her.

She didn't reply immediately and glanced toward Ginny who already gave her mother a look of warning. "I think it would be better if you looked somewhere else, Harry. I've heard some things about her family that don't sound very good. It could be dangerous."

Harry caught her clue but knew that he couldn't make that happen for her. He made his own decisions on this. It might have been nice for them all, but he didn't see Ginny like that. "Dumbledore should have already discussed this with you. In any case he doesn't view them as dangerous, and I sure as hell also don't. Her family has actually been of help to me this year, and they haven't even seen me yet!"

"Well, he did talk to us about it.." She began weakly before firing up again. "It's my mother-instinct, Harry! it's not right! You should just stay here and return to Hogwarts with Ron and the others!"

"Please!" He pleaded, pinning her with a look, completely serious. Actually managing to briefly silence her. "She means very much to me, and I would really appreciate it if you could at least accept that. I _will _go back to Daphne tomorrow, and meet her family whether you like it or not, Mrs. Weasley."

"But!" She began looking helpless and frustrated. Looking to each of them at the table again before rising in defeat when she saw no supportive looks.

"I.. I need a moment to think." She finally said with a sniff, quietly walking away and disappearing out of sight.

Everyone was silent for a few long seconds. Harry sighed heavily and looked back to his plate. "Sorry for ruining your Holiday.."

"No, she'll turn around eventually, Harry. She reacted the same with Bill." Mr. Weasley said with a look toward the stairs she had gone up on, while Ron gave him a uncertain look in some sort of agreement to his father's words.

"Yeah!" Began Fred hoping to lighten to mood. "She didn't speak to Bill for weeks when he told her, right, George?"

"She sure did, good times, good times!" George said before frowning and shaking his head. "Wait a second.. Those weren't good times at all! She didn't even get angry at us when we made her kitchen knives dance and sing songs for her whenever she would try to cut the cabbage.."

"Uhm." Harry began getting back on topic. "I don't see Bill and Fleur in a very good situation right now, Mr Weasley.. No offense." He said with a look toward the pair before adding the last part in, to which Fleur only shrugged and Bill nodded understandably.

"Ah, yes, you are quite right about that, but we'll get there. Eventually." Mr. Weasley said encouragingly with a smile before standing up and giving him a pat on the shoulder. "I'll go and talk to her now. Don't ponder about it too much, Harry. It won't get you anywhere."

* * *

"Ready, Harry?" Mr. Weasley asked igniting the fireplace with a small ball of fire from the tip of his wand.

Harry nodded a bit solemnly. Mrs. Weasley hadn't said much to him after the night before and wasn't here to see him off. He didn't like to leave things like this, but he had little choice. He would have to wait until next to he saw her, which will likely be months away. Hopefully she used that time to come to terms with it, because little would change otherwise.

"If anything smells fishy, you just run straight back here, ok, mate?" Ron asked not all that trusting about the rest of the Greengrass family with his relatively weak bond of trust in Daphne. Still, it was something. It wasn't like he demanded that Harry didn't go at all like his mother.

"It's fine, Ron. There are even Order guards stationed outside of their house." Harry replied to his concerns.

"To keep an eye on them, yeah." Ron said with a serious nod.

"To guard them." Harry corrected. "And me unfortunately." He added afterwards.

Mr. Weasley stepped away and Ron followed. "Well, you know the drill, Harry. Good luck."

Harry grabbed a pinch of powder and threw it in the fires, making them flicker and turn green before stepping into them, feeling only comfortable warm flames around him.

"Greengrass Manor!"

The effect was as instantaneous as he remembered it to be. Interiors of different houses flashed by lightning fast, green, red, blue, brown. No clear images were formed, it went too fast for his brain to properly register.

The ride ended just as abruptly as it began, and he was propelled forward.

Harry stumbled out of the fireplace, but managed to remain on his feet, however this didn't go without a bit of arm flailing to steady himself.

"First time I ever saw an entrée like that." Daphne said smiling with Tracey who stood next to her to his surprise.

"Won't be the first time either.." Harry muttered dusting off his clothes, and straightening himself.

The second thing he saw besides Daphne and Tracey was a man and women. Both were dressed in Wizarding robes. Already sporting a different look from the Weasleys in the first second.

The women, likely her mother, as he saw many facial similarities between her and Daphne, wore a silver gray robe that reached almost to the floor with long and wide sleeves on her arms. She had the same blond hair as Daphne but lacked the blue eyes, instead she had light brown ones. She looked at him with a kind expression, and much like the girls, appeared to be slightly amused by his entrée.

The man, her father, had a much shorter, navy purple robe that stopped at his hips. He had walnut brown hair that was already thinning a bit, but compensated this with an abundant beard and mustache that mainly covered the area around his mouth and chin.

Harry could see where Daphne got her eyes from as her father looked at him through azure eyes. His expression wasn't amused nor hostile. Just… observing.

They both appeared to be in their mid-forties and gave off a feeling that was very different from the warm welcoming the Weasleys always had. More aristocratic, but not plain cold either.

Next to Daphne stood a girl that must be the little sister she spoke of, Astoria. She had the caramel brown eyes from her mother and brown hair of her father. She looked at him with a friendly and energetic expression.

"Well, let's get the worst out of the way first. This is my sister, Astoria." Daphne said speaking up, and introducing her little sister first.

"Harry Potter." He said taking her small hand and shaking it.

"Hey, Harry. When did you-"

"-Meet my mother, Avelina." Daphne said calmly ignoring her sister and continuing with her mother, forcing him to turn to the next person, making Astoria pout.

"Harry Potter, I hope that you had a good Christmas, Mrs. Greengrass." He said shaking her hand.

"You may call me that if you want, but Avelina is also fine." She said in a kind tone.

"I'll try." He replied truthfully. He still had trouble with calling Mrs. Weasley Molly after all.

"And this." Daphne said gesturing to the man next to Mrs. Greengrass. "Is my father, Alberic."

"I'm not as lenient as my wife, skip the petty formalities and call me Alberic." Her father said blandly grasping his hand in a short handshake without much force. Giving Harry the feeling he simply didn't bother to put any real force or strength into it, and preferred to show it in other ways.

"Yes.. Alberic." Harry said slowly, not sure if his manner of speech was meant to alleviate or heighted his nerves.

"Easy, father, you're going too fast again." Daphne said with a roll of her eyes. Familiar with his antics.

"Nonsense. You told me more than enough about him and I've seen enough already. Mr. Potter is like-minded, and has no need of garrulous introductions." Alberic said with a quick glance to his eldest daughter before settling back on him.

"Just Harry, please." Harry said to get it out of the way and even it out.

"See?" Alberic responded rhetorically to them.

"Well." Tracey said piping up when Daphne didn't immediately respond to her father. "I'm leaving."

"Leaving?" Harry asked surprised by her sudden departure. He didn't make her feel like she had to, right?

"Oh, yes. It's gotten much too 'hairy' for me, eh? Get it? Hairy?" Tracey said nudging him while the others sported faces of trained patience.

"It sounds like Harry." Tracey clarified seriously, thinking that he still didn't get it when he gave her a look that said 'really?'

"I know, Tracey. It was just.. pretty terrible." Harry confessed apologetically.

"What? You're just as horrible as Daphne!" Tracey said leaning back with an aghast expression, quickly throwing the powder in the fires to lit them up green before stepping in. "Nobody appreciates my sense of humor! I'll see you at school, Happy Holidays, twat!"

She vanished in a roar of flames. The others didn't make much of an effort to respond or even acknowledge the exchange.. they were probably used to it by now.

"Well." Astoria began in a tone that implied impatience while giving her older sister a look. "Daphne has been threatening to strangle me if I dared to even speak to you before this point, but that time is officially over now! You're here now after all."

"Calm down, Astoria." Daphne said warningly.

"So, why did you stop Quidditch? Not that I'm complaining, Slytherin's got plenty of chances again to win the Cup, but you were like.. the best!" Astoria asked curiously having little regard for reservations, giving him the feeling that she likely took more after her father than her mother.

"I got really.. busy. I've decided to put it on hold." He answered slowly as their parents silently looked on. Truth was that the chances of joining Quidditch again were looking quite slim this year or even the next.

"That so." She replied cheerfully before moving on again. "Is it true that you totally destroyed Nott's hand? Good job if you really did. I guess he wasn't able to be any you-know-what with that hand." She finished with a ungraceful chortle, giving him a meaningful look along with it.

Daphne's mother sighed, Alberic looked away with a slightly pained look, and Daphne looked ready to palm her face.

"Ha ha. Yes, I did do that, I lost myself a bit in the moment back then.." Harry said laughing a bit awkwardly to avoid the rest of her sentence while Alberic was quick to look back searchingly at him after he ended his sentence.

"Don't mind her, Harry.. we really need to make sure she spends less time with Tracey.." Daphne said regretfully.

Astoria looked irked at her sister's words and turned back to him. "How are things with your other friends? Did Daphne completely rip you away from them?"

"Shut up!" Daphne said with ire, quickly losing her calm.

"You're being impolite, Astoria." Alberic said warningly to her, only making her shrug lightly.

"I was just asking. The golden trio isn't all that trio-ish anymore. People talk about it."

"Daphne didn't do any of the sort, we just… spend a bit less time together nowadays." Harry said with a small smile to her. He couldn't ignore the fact that he definitely spend less time with them, but he didn't think it to be Daphne's fault. It was mainly the fact that things been a bit strained on multiple occasions because of their initial disbelief in Malfoy, and Daphne's intentions. Not to mention the amount of information Daphne had over them on what he was doing.

"Yeeaah.." Astoria drawled a bit before giving him a once over, making him feel like he was being examined like a piece of meat to determine its quality.

"So." She began again in a chipper tone. "Why do you always wear those kind of rags?"

Harry didn't have an answer ready for that and shifted uncomfortably. Immediately feeling self-conscious. The clothes from the Dursleys' weren't complete sheets that covered his body anymore like they did in the past, but they were still definitely on the large side as there was always plenty of room left for him to move in.

"Astoria! Have you forgotten any normal decency? Make one more mistake and you can leave us." Alberic lectured her, a promising look in his eyes.

"Urgh. Sorry.." Astoria said meekly, giving him, and her father an apologetic look.

"Anyway.. now that we are on the subject.." Daphne said with a glare toward her sister who stuck out her tongue. "I've been wanting to take care of that little problem for a while now.. May I take Harry to Diagon Alley for new clothes, mother, father?"

"Sure you can!" Her mother replied brightly and helpfully.

Daphne immediately looked energized at the easy answer. "Thanks!"

"Just kidding! There is no way we'll let you go that easily." Her mother continued cheerfully with a pleasant smile. "It wouldn't do us any good to anger the Order by letting you two run of unprotected, now would it?"

"We will be in broad daylight! We don't need anyone to come with us!" Daphne complained seeing her father shake his head at her in agreement with his wife.

Avelina got a more serious expression. "My condition remains unchanged, Daphne. You will either go with someone, or not at all."

"She's right, Daphne. It will only bring your family in trouble with the Order if we go alone." Harry said to her.

"Fine. Call some smelly guard over." Daphne said with a sigh, relenting.

"Daphne's just peeved of the fact that you two won't get any alone time!" Her little sister softly said teasingly with a little grin.

Daphne made no effort to deny her words and just huffed.

"Now that introductions and a little more have been taken care of you can show Harry around, Daphne. Come to the lounge when you are done so that Harry and I can take care of our business." Alberic issued in a firm, but caring way before clasping his hands behind his back and walking away. "You will leave them alone Astoria, follow us."

Harry watched as Astoria sagged in disappointment before following her father.

"Don't mind him, Alberic is always very blunt and to the point. It has its advantages and disadvantages." Avelina said before turning and following her husband.

"Not what you expected?" Daphne asked with a grin, motioning for him to follow her.

"It's mainly your father that surprised me.." Harry said taking in his surroundings for the first time as he followed her.

He could see why it was a manor. It wasn't enormous inside, but it was still many times bigger than the small space of the Weasleys. There were white, stone walls instead of wood, the ceiling was high and the windows around them allowed much sunlight to fall inside. Outside he could see stretching snow fields that would likely do her family name justice in the summer and spring.

Chandeliers hung from the ceiling and many of the rooms in the house were shaped in an oval trend. The walls and rooms were often decorated with paintings of landscapes and gadget gizmos that reminded him of Dumbledore's office.

Daphne continued to tour him through the house, he passed the living quarters of the House Elves, multiple guest rooms, study area, library, Potion brewing area, dining room, a small courtyard and more.

"And here's my room." Daphne said opening the door to her room when they had gone through much of the house. "You may sniff my pillow if you desire to do so."

He curiously looked inside as he laughed a bit. "I'm fine, thanks. I've got you around so I don't need to."

"You flatter me with your perversion, Harry." She said swooning dramatically, briefly putting her hands to her cheeks.

He hadn't really known beforehand what to expect from her room, but now that he saw it, he knew that it was truly hers.

There was a large red bed with curtains around it for either privacy or decoration, there was a neatly arranged bookshelf with little room left for more books. A dark brown desk stood next to it with multiple boxes and cases stacked up. Spare quills and parchment stood at the ready. Most characteristically was the single bag from which candy canes, and acid pops sprawled out along with a wide variety of other sweets on the bottom, he knew this because it was actually his Christmas present to her…

On the floor was a large rug depicting magical creatures either made up or he didn't know of yet. On the walls were a few paintings of landscapes and sunsets with a few hangings draped over most of the remaining spots.

"It feels very 'Daphne'." He said smiling at her when he looked back.

"Thanks." She said suddenly looking a bit sad, making him wonder if he said the wrong thing.

"So." Daphne began in a topic switching tone and a brighter expression. "During your stay here we planned to do that Somniamency training for you? Are you truly ready for it?"

He gave her a nod. "Yes. I think that I've done enough of the exercises in preparation. We should try and do it sometime soon now that we are here and have the time for it. It's not going to be pleasant though, but you already knew that."

"I do. It's safe to assume that sleeping still isn't going very well for you then?" She asked softly.

He shook his head. "It's better now, but not enough. There are still a lot of nights with nightmares. I can't keep all of them at bay."

She nodded seriously at him before her expression softened. "Then we will do it sometime soon, and hopefully solve it for you… I can't imagine how hard it must be to constantly be plagued by all kinds of horrid dreams every night. Some might simply go crazy from that alone you know? Considering all the other things, I think it serves to show just how strong you really are, Harry."

"Nah, It's alright, I'm just doing what I can." He said with somewhat of a shrug, not really knowing how he was supposed to respond to such praise, but feeling strangely heartened.

He paused as he felt her locket on his chest move a bit with his movements. The weight had already become a pleasant reminder of her for when she wasn't around.

"But the one getting praise here should be you, Daphne." He said focusing his eyes back on her azure ones.

"Hm? What do you mean?" Daphne asked curiously as she stroked a lock of stray hair out of her face.

"Thanks… I want to thank you for what you did in Little Whinging. It means the world to me." He said with as much gratitude he could put into his voice, and stepping closer to her. She had been a silent source strength during their brief time there and helped him shed a weight off his shoulders with her comforting arms.

Strange how such a simple gesture could do so much. It's almost absurd how much she means to him now. She has done so much for him, and still continued to do so. Unconditionally.

"Anytime, Harry." She said with a genuine smile this time. A smile that warmed him from the inside again.

"No, really. I still find it hard to believe that you don't think any less of me.. I mean.. I grew up in a cupboard under the stairs, and worked like a slave for years." He said softly. "It must've shows quite a different image of me. Of the one you have seen and heard of so far."

She sighed lightly as if he was being silly to her, and put her hand on his chest. Right on top of his heart. Feeling his heartbeat.

On her face was a look that made him feel light, and fluttery in his stomach. It was a look he couldn't quite place, he might have seen brief flashes of it before, but it was very clear and evident now… He needed little time to decide that he liked to see it on her pretty face. It was gentle, caring and full of warmth.

"It doesn't matter where you grew up or how you were treated. You've grown to be a great man through your own efforts, Harry. A flawed one, but a great one nonetheless. I have no doubts about that. I just try to make you see that too."

He gave no reply to her words, he didn't have one, and he couldn't think of one. Instead je just placed his hand atop of her smaller one that was on his chest.

"..Your present is great, I'll always wear it." He said for a more lightening change. "Mine sucks in comparison though, sorry about that.."

She laughed at him. "Oh yes, I found your enormous sack of candies with a note that said 'I was out of time, and didn't have a single bloody clue as to what I could possibly give you.' quite heartwarming and poetic, Harry."

"I'm sorry, alright." He said apologetically, stroking her soft cheek, wanting to kiss her. "Can I make it up to you?"

She took a step back however, causing fear to run through him. Had he done something wrong?.. Was he really that bad at it?

"Please, don't look like that, Harry, it's just that I will feel guilty if I were to do that with you right now." She said apologetically, the morose look back again.

"Why?" He asked in confusion.

"Because I lied to you again, about myself this time." Daphne said softly, playing with the frills on the edge of her shirt.

"Ah... About your family's past, right?" He said in comprehension. His fears leaving him.

She looked a bit surprised at him. "I.. yes. I did, when did you..?"

He smiled a bit. "After you told me how your father had something to show me that would help you change my mind. I got the idea that you might not have told me everything the first time about your family. After a little talk with Tracey, I suspected that it entailed something like that even more since she accidentally slipped a clue about your father dropping the Arts on a later age later than you told me at the time."

"Well, it's true.. and I just want you to know about it all first. I know that It's hypocritical to do that now at the very last moment, but I guess that is just how I am sometimes.." She said, at least somewhat aware of herself. "If you still feel like it afterwards, then we can pick up where we left off." Daphne said with an uncertain smile, looking to be having trouble with the things that were to come.

He lightly hugged her, and kissed her smooth forehead. He would just have to wait and see. "Will do."

* * *

"I've shown him around, father." Daphne said to Alberic after they had descended the spiral staircase and made their way to the lounge where the remaining family was.

"Good." He said putting down his unfinished tea and rising up from the chair at the fireplace. Simply leaving it to go cold.

"We will return in a hour or two. Walk with me, Harry." He said to each of them before calmly strolling off. Hands clasped behind his back.

Daphne sat down next to her mother and sister on the couch. Giving him a single nod, and silently sending him off.

He gave her a final reassuring look under the curious looks of her sister and mother before turning to follow her father.

"Where are we going, Si- Alberic?" Harry asked quickly correcting his near-mistake as he hurried his pace and caught up to him.

"My office. It's where I usually do my paper work for our Apothecary business. The reason we go there is because I also have the things we need in there." Alberic answered making a sharp turn left.

Instead of going up the spiral staircase like Harry expected, they went downstairs to a much more dark area.

Soon the smell of Cauldron brewing and Potion ingredients filled his nostrils, strongly reminding him of their, now, much more pleasant Potion lessons. Having Daphne to do it with and learn from made it ten times better. Not to mention that Snape wasn't there to try and humiliate his results, instead he was now at Defense against the Dark Arts. His best subject.

"Have a seat." Alberic said bringing him out of his thoughts when he opened the door and beckoned him inside.

Harry quickly moved inside and took place in the only seat that was available to him, opposite the high backed chair that stood behind an old mahogany desk.

The office was oval shaped and nearly all around them were ceiling reaching shelves filled with either files or books, all of whom seemed to be about Potion brewing. There was a single chandelier which hung in the middle of the room, still giving of enough light to make everything in the room visible, but not without casting a few flickering shadows. On his desk simply lay a quill, blank parchment, envelopes and a imprimatur.

"This will be easy for you, Harry." Alberic began when he seated himself in the large chair. "I won't ask you the usual questions of 'what are your intentions with my daughter?' because quite frankly, those are utterly redundant. Daphne wouldn't even pay you the slightest amount of attention if your intentions hadn't pure from the start, not even if you came flying by on a dragon and shining armor."

"I think so too, if anything, she was the one on the dragon with armor and sword." Harry said smiling a bit now that he thought about it. Where would he have been right now if it hadn't been for Daphne jumping in?

Alberic picked the quill up and started to spin it between his fingers in thought before speaking with a tone of contemplation. "My daughter always wanted all kinds of things when she grew up, and we had the funds, but we didn't spoil her. Instead I learned her to make choices despite the plethora of resources on her hands, and she does so marvelously now that she has grown up. Astoria didn't pick that up as much, but she got her own talents respectively."

Harry eased more into the chair underneath him, hearing about Daphne as a child was both interesting and calming.

"She still tends to be selfish from time to time, and her ways aren't always what some people consider 'the best for all', but that's simply because she tends to be a bit aloof against people she doesn't know very well yet. Hence the small amount of people she's familiar with." Alberic continued with a brief smile before turning sober again.

"She will accomplish her goals and truly cares about others in her own way, simple as that. Whether or not people can see that is just their problem." Alberic said cleaning the tip of his quill from dried ink at his leisure with his thumb and index finger.

Harry smiled a bit as he watched the dried chips fall down. Yes, Daphne can pick the more questionable route from time to time he thought reminiscently, remembering her actions to force him into the Slug Club, Occlumency lessons and representative role for the masquerade. Not the greatest way to go about it, but she always means well, and it helped him greatly in the end.

"I believe in the choices she makes, in the end she's crystal clear on the things she wants, and doesn't want. I taught her to be like that after all. Half-hearted intentions and empty promises only get you halfway down the road before you fail and crash." He said putting down the quill next to the envelopes and parchment with a pensive look. "If that is the case you might as well not bother at all, but I digress."

To Harry, it sounded regretful. A hard learned lesson laced with personal experience, but he didn't question it further in favor of hearing more.

"Imagine my surprise when she started writing to me about you. About Harry Potter! Asking for advice, help, ideas. My little girl was sold quicker than her wand, and that went pretty fast. Trust me." Alberic said with a short, but surprisingly light chuckle. "Her mind was made up, no going back."

Alberic didn't give him much time to respond as he continued again. "And then more letters. Explaining how you wanted to help us, strangers! Because you cared for her too. The miraculous words that helped us join the Order came, and we were able to join with them, albeit in a more forced and tense way.. At the time Dumbledore's eyes flared behind his glasses, and demanded how I knew. Long those conversations were indeed.."

"It was risky, maybe even stupid, but I knew that I could trust Daphne. It's true that I wanted to help her, but I also wanted your family tome at the same time, so we made somewhat of a deal." Harry explained. He would have helped her even without the book, but didn't want them to view him as some kind of hero like others sometimes tended to do.

"So you did, the result was the same nonetheless, but we will get to that shortly." Alberic said placing his hands on his desk to push himself up from his chair, and make his way to a locket cabinet. "'Born as the seventh month dies.' I have no idea what it means, not now, nor when I said it to Dumbledore. I didn't show that of course, he also couldn't see it with all of us versed in Occlumency."

Harry said nothing, and watched him unlock the cabinet before taking out a bowl he recognized instantly. A Pensieve.

"Is it some sort of code, password.. secret?" Alberic asked placing the Pensieve on the desk in-between them with a thud. The Pensieve had a square framework with the well-known, wispy fluid resting in the middle of it in tranquility.

"I'm afraid that I can't explain anything about it.. " Harry said apologetically.

"Hmm, very well. A secret it is then, you've done enough after all.." Alberic replied mildly, taking out multiple vials from a small lockbox. The liquid inside was the same sustenance he recognized from the bottles Dumbledore used during their history lessons. Memories.

"Coming back to our earlier topic, it is not exactly as you say. You merely asked us for the book, you didn't demand anything, you helped us without complete certainty that we would comply to your request." Alberic said dusting off the Pensieve in front of him with a tap of his wand, it probably hadn't seen much use until now. "Coincidentally this actually served to strengthen my trust in your nature, and intentions."

"I want to thank you for that, for the book, I wouldn't have gotten anything useful otherwise." Harry replied truthfully. The books in Hogwarts had quickly left him empty handed at the time with censored explanations in the little amount of could he actually managed to find. Dumbledore had done a splendid job of removing them after Tom Riddle left.

"Yes, precisely.. Daphne hoped, and I expected you to never truly practice what was in the book, I complied to lesson our debt to you. Again you surprised me, but this time not pleasantly." Alberic said with a sudden look of distain toward the surface of the Pensieve he stared at before relaxing his features. "However, I can understand your reasoning, Daphne told me so. The Dark Lord is set on hunting you down. You need a weapon to cut yourself free."

"I do." Harry said with a nod. This was the only thing he excelled at far above the other schools of magic with his recent awakening to the Gift.

"Which is exactly why we stand here today.. I have nothing against you, young man, but do not misunderstand. I am not showing this to you because I plan on educating you in the Arts. I do this for my own good, and my own family. You will not speak of this to anyone else outside of our family. No one. Understood?" Alberic said strictly, holding his gaze with his own blue eyes.

"Yes.. Alberic."

He nodded and uncorked the vials before pouring multiple of them into the Pensieve, mixing grey with white. "I will show you our history in the Arts, my history. I will show you what it can do, and what you can expect."

Harry knew what to do and rose from his chair, ready to dive into the memories.

"Today you will learn what happens to those who drown in the shallow waters." Alberic said cryptically, this time bringing a strain of memories from his temple to the bowl.

* * *

**Cliffhanger?**

**….**

**:D? U mad?**

**I'm sorry, but there was no way for me to also include the memory in this chapter. It's too. Damn. Long. A whole chapter in fact.**

**Lemme know what you think about the chapter if you have some thoughts about it.**

**Thanks for reading!**


	29. Aeran and Ethilia

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter Universe and all the characters belong to J.K. Rowling.

* * *

Harry landed in the memory and not a second later Alberic appeared beside him. There were grey, blurry tones all around them, and Harry couldn't distinguish a lot from the shifting mass.

"The memories that you will see tonight are a combination of my own, and my father's who deposited them into the Pensieve. They can be a bit distorted, but should still function." Alberic calmly supplied.

The memory around them cleared up into more clear shapes, painted with cold colors after his words. Revealing to Harry that they were back in the Hall of the Greengrass manor, albeit in a more darker looking one as a lot of the interior around them was kind of styled like Grimmauld Place.

In the large doorway stood a young man in brown robes, he only looked to be in his early twenties with his clean shaved face and short blonde hair.

"We start from where it is relevant. The nineteen forties, the end of the Muggle WWII, and shortly after Gellert Grindelwald's downfall in trying to end the International Statute of Secrecy. The young man you see is Aeran Greengrass, my father." Alberic said in a bland tone, motioning toward the robed man.

"Sorry, Statute of what?" Harry asked the sudden flux of new names and references leaving him a bit blank. He had no clue what the Statute meant, but Gellert Grindelwald did sound familiar.. It somehow ringed a bell in Harry's mind, but he couldn't exactly place where he had heard the name before.

"Oh. Of course." Alberic said in understanding. "The International Statute of Secrecy was formed more than 300 years ago to safeguard the wizarding people and it's children from the muggle witch-hunts. The story behind it is a bit longer than that, but in plain words, we have it to safeguard ourselves."

"I see." Harry simply said in comprehension before focusing on the memory again.

"Anyway." Alberic began switching back. "Aeran and Ethilia had already been married at this time. Quite contently too, there was little to worry about during their daily lives. Today however, would be one with very unfortunate news for them, serving to upset the balance in their lives."

"Deceased?" Asked a shocked voice, sounding like it came from some sort of cave or closed off space with its slightly echoing and distant tone. "What do you mean deceased!?"

Harry looked back to the man that was Daphne's grandfather and saw that his sudden outburst was directed toward a man opposite from him in the doorway.

"It is as I say. Regrettably the members of the Greengrass and Marude family have lost their lives in the final battle against the resistance group of Germany as Albus Dumbledore battled the Dark Wizard, Grindelwald at Nurmengard." The other, and more older man spoke from the doorway. He wore a dark blue uniform with the polished badge of the ministry gleaming on his chest.

Dumbledore! Harry thought, suddenly realizing where he had heard from Grindelwald before. Dumbledore had briefly mentioned him during their conversation in his office after he had been brought to his office after his battle with Nott.

"The remaining Greengrass members refused to surrender even after the battle was decided. They fell in battle shortly after. You and Ethilia Greengrass née Marude are now the only ones left." The man finished blandly.

"Preposterous! Our families wouldn't have died so easily! The ministry of Germany has them, right!? They're prisoners of war! They must want something from us!" Aeran exclaimed more in panic than anger.

The Ministry official shook his head almost mechanically. "I'm afraid not, you may visit their bodies if you desire proof.. Actually you are required to for confirmation."

"Impossible..." Aeran replied taking a step back in shock and holding the edge of the stone wall beside him for support. "I already knew about the outcome at Nurmengard since a few days, but mother.. father.. everyone.. died?" He said softly trailing off at the end. Briefly staring ahead of him with a distant look as the news of his parents and family sunk in.

"Yes, as such my business here is to inform you of the debts that have been issued against your family through the cooperation of our own Ministry with that of Germany." The official said stone-faced, making Harry wonder how many families he had already visited by now.

Aeran's hand slid down the wall to hank limply as he looked at the man in uniform in confusion. "Debts? What debts? We don't have any."

"You do now. War debts, Mr. Greengrass, for all the collateral damage that has been caused by Grindelwald's faction during his reign. Properties have been destroyed, and family members have been killed during the conflict in Germany. A conflict that initially wasn't theirs." The ministry official said taking a sealed document from his bag and handing it over to a stunned Aeran. "Compensation has been demanded to amend this from both the families that have been involved with Grindelwald as well as the ministry that should have prevented this from happening."

"I- I don't know if we can.." Aeran said frowning at the envelope, whether that was because he wasn't aware of their finances or already knew the sum of the fine, Harry didn't know.

The unknown man closed his bag again with a click. "You should be thankful for the fact that you will not be persecuted by not having been directly involved in the war, at least evidence wise. You will soon be informed by Gringotts of your coming Lordship with the passing of the current head. See to your finances, Mr. Greengrass. Have a good day."

The official tipped his hat and turned heel. Walking back down the small path through the grassy fields to step outside the boundaries.

Aeran remained in a slump for a few second before angrily slamming the door shut with a string of curses. Turning away to walk in a brisk pace toward the spiral staircase.

"Ethilia!" He shouted, rapidly ascending the stairs his tapping footsteps echoing in the Hall. "Ethilia!"

Harry was curious as to how it was going to play out further, but noticed that the memory was distorting and fading to make place for the next one.

"As you heard, my parents, to their luck played little to no role in the war, being young and inexperienced in comparison to the other family members. They were simply unnecessary and remained behind as most of the war raged in another country." Alberic said with an indescribable expression upon his face as he watched his father run up the stairs before the vision completely melted away. "It's a good thing they did or the whole family could have ended back then."

"Si-Alberic, sorry for taking a step back, but Gellert Grindelwald? The official said he was a Dark Wizard, and lost against Dumbledore. Why? Was he like how Voldemort is now?" Harry said slowly. He hadn't heard about this before.. He should've paid more attention to the History lessons in his earlier years. He only had a vague idea now.

"Well, I can't judge him personally, but I can say that the situation right now is many times worse, unfortunately. As for the war, he fought to bring down our Wizarding law of Secrecy, wishing to rule over Muggles. Multiple families, including mine, liked the sound of that. Desiring to turn the tables of oppression." Alberic replied. "The very same thing is happening again right now. This time however, it's even worse as a crusade for blood-purity has been thrown into the mix."

Harry nodded, gaining more understanding as to why Dumbledore was seen in such a high regard in the Wizarding world. The current war with Voldemort wasn't his first, and he had done more than just help during the battle against Grindelwald. Dumbledore ended it.

Sounds bubbled up again as the next memory formed. A dimly lit study area rose up around them with shelves lined up against the walls, and multiple books and pieces of parchment scattered around haphazardly on the floor.

"There must be some kind of way, Aeran." A women with pitch black hair said supportively, searchingly shifting a few of the parchments around on the already overflowing desk.

Harry surmised that she was likely Ethilia, Aeran's wife, as she appeared to be around the same age as the blond man opposite from her.

"There is no way!" Aeran said snappily at her, making her flinch before quickly recovering. "Everyone knows we are collapsing, and they are right, we are falling rapidly.. As things stand now we have no way to pay off those debts in time.."

"You are correct, sadly. The amount just keeps on growing as more names from the dead keep being added onto the list. The other families show little desire to help us now that we have almost nothing to offer in return." Ethilia replied.

"This entire scenario is ridiculous to begin with. So what if a bunch of worthless muggles died at the hands of our family?! Incomprehensible. I'm sure that half of them aren't even there rightfully! Other families are using dirty tricks to push the blame off of them, and onto us." Aeran said with an accusing tone.

"Either way, I think we should look it through one more time, we might have missed something that we can use." She said carefully, trying what appeared to be the hundredth time.

"Futile!" Aeran shouted angrily swiping a hand across the desk, making his wife jump in her seat as books fell down and parchment flew up before gliding down again. "We need favors, intimidation, connections, and information for any of those loopholes to work. We are stuck! We will soon have to sell the manor at this pace or risk being stripped of our status! And even then we haven't done enough yet! We need to make money somehow, Ethilia!"

"I don't see how, Aeran. My sales and your private lectures won't yield enough in time!" Ethilia retorted sounding to be out of ideas now.

The angry expression on Aeran's face calmed and he sat back down on the dark, high backed chair with a distant look.

"Aeran?" Ethilia asked softly after he didn't reply.

"..We are proficient in both Occlumency as well as the Arts. Our parents taught us well and we have shown to be more than just a little talented in it." He said covertly before bringing his eyes up from his now empty desk to Ethilia's.

"What do you suggest we do with it?" She asked dauntlessly, her husband's words quickly piquing her interest. Making Harry realise that she was confident but very different from Daphne by showing little hesitation on the matter.

"We will make use of my family tome. Learn what we can, and gather dangerous, and illegal ingredients for potions and rituals to sell in places like Knockturn Alley. It's a last resort that has been on my mind for some time now." Aeran said with a look of determination. "Besides that we can research into making new Curses. There aren't many, but I know of a few people that will be interested, we can continue from there."

"Efficient, albeit precarious methods." Ethilia concurred, crossing one of her legs. "Prices of such materials and services will rise now that the war has ended. Coincidentally regulations of the Ministry will loosen as they gain the illusion of control again."

"Not only that, but people are not pleased with the fact that Grindelwald failed, everyone will wait for the next Dark Lord, because there _will_ be one. It's only a matter of time." Aeran replied conspiringly, standing up to pace around the room, occasionally crumbling a few parchments as he stepped on them. Ethilia's dark eyes following him as he moved about.

"During that time they do not wish to sit idle. Alliances will be made again in the meantime, and children will be raised with the same thought in mind." Aeran said, the traces of his frustration still lingering his young face.

"Preparations will be made. Each in their own way... We can make use of that, whether they need ingredients, potions or spells." Ethilia said conclusively.

"Yes. Don't worry, love. We'll get out of this soon." Aeran said softly, ending their conversation and the memory.

Harry turned back when the present Alberic spoke up again. "Long story short; many other families used their political connections and positions so lessen the majority of their debts, but Aeran and Ethilia weren't among those people, unfortunately. The older family members had died, and Lordship was passed on to him before he was ready. Not only that, but the title meant little as they possessed only a fraction of the connections their parents used to maintain, nor the experience in playing dirty politics."

Images around them shifted again and Harry soon saw a much more standard looking Wizarding house.

"Despite their plans, they lost the manor in the coming years. Inventing spells turned out harder than he initially thought it to be. Aeran did manage to keep his lordship however, but that didn't make much of a difference, they now found themselves on one of the lowest ranks, much to their distain." He continued, motioning to the house and entering it.

Harry took another look before following him inside and wondered what the problem was. The house was nothing grand, but should have been satisfactory enough. It didn't show much damage or problems on the outside, and looked to be nowhere near a house like the Weasleys'.

Harry went inside and quickly heard the aggravated, albeit older sounding voice of Aeran reverberate from the living room.

"They are laughing at us! They think themselves so much more better and clever than us, because they were able to use their dirty tricks while we are still plowing through the dirt!"

Harry and Alberic stepped into the room where the voice came from. Once inside the living room he saw many items stacked up on the shelves and stuffed into the corners of the room. They likely came from the Greengrass manor judging by their appearance. Harry surmised that Mr. and Mrs. Greengrass kept it in refusal of their status decline, holding on to whatever they could from their old lives.

"I feel the same way, Aeran." Ethilia said in agreement, a bitter frown across her now older looking features. She now also sported a big, round belly, looking highly pregnant. "I suspect that they know about our business. All of it."

"Of course they know, behind their friendly smiles, smug faces fester." Aeran muttered darkly, sitting hunched over in his chair. "They think we've become some petty delivery group to fetch materials, and items for them! Insolent fools..."

"I'm sure that times will change." Ethilia said encouragingly as she rested her hand on her bulging stomach.

"Indeed, I saw how those wenches dared to look at you." Aeran replied in a mixture of sympathy for his wife, and anger at the unknown women. "We'll raise the finest heir the Greengrass family has ever seen. Our son will become strong, handsome, decisive, and smart. We will reclaim what was lost, and show them all who'll laugh last.."

The memory ended quicker this time as their surroundings faded away, Aeran's azure gaze remaining fixated on her stomach until he too disappeared into the background.

"Again, luck didn't strike after I was born. Not only wasn't I gifted in any way my parents had hoped me to be, but Ethilia also became unable to bear any more children." Alberic said dispassionately.

New images and sounds arose before Harry could ask him to explain his words.

They were in a study area, curtains were pulled before the window to prevent a majority of the light from entering and in the back of the room he saw Aeran behind a black desk with a small boy, no older than eight years old in front of him.

Aeran looked to be between his thirties and forties now as his hair had lost some of its shine while a few wrinkles around his mouth and forehead seemed to be permanently edged upon his face. His shaved face had also been replaced for a decent beard. He was scribbling diligently on a piece parchment. Giving little attention to the child in front of him.

"What is the incantation for Fiendfyre, Alberic?" He asked monotonously to the child who Harry now recognized to be Daphne's father.

"Uhm.. I think it was something with.. Uh." The young Alberic began hesitantly in his light and childish voice, shifting slightly in the chair that was much too big for him.

Aeran stopped writing.

"Now." He commanded.

"Bellu.. Bignus?" Alberic squeaked, sounding completely unsure of his answer.

"Wrong. Where can the hairs of dryad be harvested?"

"I-In the woods?"

"That's a given, you fool, I'm asking for a more specific location."

"S-somewhere with lots of water, right?"

"Wrong!" Aeran finally snapped, slamming the quill in his hand down and breaking it, making Alberic jump. "I told you which paragraphs to learn, did I not? Have I been unclear in my instructions? Did I stutter?!"

"You did tell me, father.." The child answered morosely, looking down to his lap with a trembling bottom lip.

"We've been going through chapters for _months_! Again and again, but you hardly learn _anything_! How are you supposed to a powerful and worthy wizard someday if you can't even recite the spells from the back of your mind! And stop crying! Only weaklings cry!" Aeran ranted in disappointment. His face uncaring and his voice hard.

"What do you have to say for yourself, Alberic? What reason do you have to explain this?" He asked stiffly, looking down on his son with narrowed azure eyes.

His son struggled to refrain from crying and managed to get his answer out in a tightly controlled voice.

"I-It's just so much.. and the f-family book has lots of complicated words.. I just can't r-remember it all." Alberic hiccupped.

Aeran merely sighed, sank back down, and waved him off dismissively. "Get back to your studies."

Alberic nodded solemnly, slid down the chair and quietly walked away. As if he wanted to be invisible.

They followed the small Alberic out of the office, and ended up at his mother, Ethila, again who had aged in much the same way Aeran did.

She was currently invested in thick books that were stacked upon each other on her desk and neatly assembled documents, detailing intricate drawings. Keywords were written all over the papers with a few erratic scribbles here and there.

Harry frowned when he saw the familiar handwriting and leaned closer over her work, realizing with a small shock that she was currently writing a large part of the manipulation of souls and longevity section he and Daphne would later come to read themselves in the family book. Sections they were still working to get through right now.

Harry did vaguely remember seeing the names of Ethilia and Aeran in the register of family members that had edited it, but it was a bit strange to see the actual pages in the making right now.

"How did your session go with your father?" She asked putting off her reading glasses to look at her son in a more neutral than loving way. Making harry wonder just how much she and Aeran were expecting of their son, she had definitely appeared to be the more caring of the two before his birth.

"He got angry." Alberic said dejectedly, studying the floor at his feet with slumped shoulders.

Ethilia sighed tiredly, and didn't make any move to go and comfort her son, but did give him somewhat of a consoling look.

"You need to lean harder, Alberic, or we will never be able to become a recognizable family again. Your parents have managed to become very knowledgeable and powerful. You need to do the same and learn everything you can if you are to achieve the same."

"Yes mother.." Alberic murmured, looking back up when Ethilia spoke again.

"Keep your head raised and speak clearly, Alberic. It's unbecoming for the Greengrass heir." Ethilia said primly before everything faded into mixed colors and images again.

"Evidently, I was no genius, but they still held hope.. because just maybe I was talented at the practical side of the Arts instead of academically." The older and mature sounding voice of the Alberic beside Harry said slowly. "My first Hogwarts year arrived, and with it my practical lessons on the Dark Arts."

"Horrible? What do you mean horrible?!" Aeran asked looking at his son as if he had grown another head. "Do it again!"

Alberic, looking a few years older now in comparison to the previous memory, did as his father instructed him to and fired off a red spell from his wand, letting it collide against a conjured practice dummy with a bang before slightly shaking his head.

"It still feels the same.. I don't know how I'm supposed to feel good from this.. It doesn't feel right." He said carefully, already looking afraid for the reaction of his father.

"No, no, no! Not this too.." Aeran murmured, turning away and rubbing his forehead with the back of his hand.

"No?" Ethilia repeated curiously, having just entered the room as he said it. "What's wrong?"

Aeran motioned toward Alberic who looked back and forth between his mother and father with a nervous expression on his face.

"He says that it doesn't 'feel right'! Our son, the first in the family line, doesn't have a single shred of potential for the Arts inside of him!" Aeran exclaimed.

Ethilia's face actually went a bit pale from his words. "No that can't be, if so everything will be.."

"It's the truth, Ethilia. It already took much too long to produce anything in the first place, it should have come naturally." He said shaking his head, the wrinkles on his face deepening with his frown.

"Maybe he just needs a bit of time, it might still come to him.. everything else did so too. We will try again later." She said firmly, rather appearing to try and convince them both of the unlikely possibility of success.

Alberic only looked disappointed in himself, disappointed in failing to meet the expectations of his parents yet again.

"Second year, I overheard my parents talk about me, their disappointment was too much to bear, and I decided to dedicate myself wholly to satisfy them." Alberic of the present said as the scene changed again.

Harry stood in a small room, the younger Alberic wasn't present and his parents seemed to be having a private discussion.

"He's decent in terms of magical strength but his connection to the Arts is practically zero, he's nearly a squib in the area! We had originally planned to bring him to competitions between families, but we have nothing to show for like this." Aeran said bluntly, stiffly pacing around in the room.

"I know, but what can we do? Maybe we should just train him in other areas and see what we can do from there." Ethilia tried, but sounding to be just as frustrated as her husband.

"We are already doing that.. he might grow up to be above average with much effort, but what kind of Greengrass will he be if he can't do anything in the most important area! The whole family line has always been capable of it, always had the affinity for it, why did this happen?" Aeran asked to both himself and Ethilia as he continued to pace around briskly.

The doors burst open and in it stood Alberic, looking a bit taller again, he looked at his parents with an unusually determined, but pained look.

"Alberic? Since when?" Began his mother, but her son cut her off.

"-I will give it my everything, father, mother! Please teach me as much as you can, I want to make you proud!" He said abruptly, evidently having heard the conversation of his parents from behind the door.

"Fine." Aeran said with a simple nod. There was no look of pride at his son, only hard expectations.

"Third year, I truly began my practice, my slow, and unfruitful practice." Alberic suddenly spoke up from his side, nearly making Harry jump as he had forgotten his presence for a moment.

The scene changed again and Harry found Alberic with his Father back in the small training room.

"Os Fractionis!" Alberic shouted, firing the cardinal colored beam from his wand to the dummy, making one of its appendages break and fly off.

"And?" Aeran asked with an inspecting look, not appearing to be impressed by the result on the dummy.

"Nothing yet, it's still the same as always, sorry." Alberic answered apologetically, looking saddened by the fact that his connection to the Arts wasn't showing any signs of emerging.

"Then we continue." His father said intently, repairing the dummy with a swish of his wand.

"Fourth year, I continued my practices, but struggled to deliver. I noticed how my parents appeared slightly anxious, but I took little heed to it and continued to push myself forward.. little did I know back then." Alberic commented again, the images around them shifting not a second later.

"Still?" Aeran asked gruffly.

"Still nothing." Alberic replied quietly, having grown considerably yet again with a more tall and filled our figure. His face was schooled, but Harry could see the hardship of having to give a dissatisfactory answer yet again. It soon gone however, as he focused back on his target again with a near hopeful look. Hopeful for something to happen so that his hard work would make his parents proud, and fulfill the goal he had set for himself.

"You must push yourself harder. People are getting on edge, and whispers are starting to circulate." His father said mysteriously. "We too are working harder."

"Whispers about what?" Alberic asked in curiosity, momentarily lowering his wand.

"Nothing. Nothing you need to concern yourself with, not yet. Continue your practice." Aeran answered dismissively.

"Fifth year, I got to know Avelina in Hogwarts, we didn't start in the same year, but I first got to know her by a simple chance of encounter. After that our friendship continued to strengthen and evolve. I felt my resolve to master the Arts crumble as a result, I was torn between satisfying my parents, and my developing feelings for Avelina. She showed me a different side of life. One where I didn't have to work continuously to try and satisfy her. Being near was all that she wanted from me."

"Avelina Marude?" Ethilia asked rhetorically, looking thoughtful for only a moment. "I've heard a bit of them, but they are nowhere near what we should be aiming for, Alberic. Find someone else."

"Wha-?" Alberic said perplexed. "I-I didn't say that I wanted to marry her or anything, I just think that.."

"That what? Be clear on your thoughts regarding these matters. Asked impatiently before continuing with a shake of her head. "It doesn't matter either way on this matter though, we are aiming for high class, Alberic. Marude is not what we seek. Forget about her, we will find somebody more suitable ourselves." Ethilia said strictly, looking up from her theoretical documents in annoyance when Alberic continued to silently stand there, processing what she had said.

"Do you have anything else to discuss with me? I'm working on an exceedingly difficult piece here and time is running short."

Harry watched him open and close his mouth for a few seconds, trying to find the words to express his dissatisfaction, and shock on the matter before closing it with a tight expression on his face, and leaving the study.

"Sixth year arrived. Despite the warnings of my parents I continued my friendly relationship with Avelina, and eventually became intimate with her in secret. She helped me choose a path, and I decided to tell my parents that I would no longer try to please them. It was an unreachable goal from the very start, she helped me realise that." Alberic said before continuing in a darker tone. "This was also the year where the rumors and whispers my father talked about earlier became more than just that. Talk of a new Dark Lord was on the streets..."

Harry now found himself in a hallway of the house, behind a nearby door he could the muffled voices of his parents speak secretively.

"Are you sure? I don't want to make the same mistake like our parents did with Grindelwald. We need to be assured that this is the right course, and moment." Aeran's curious, but slightly skeptical voice replied. "We both have been keeping our ears open about this for a long time now, but we have no room for mistakes."

"I'm sure of it, this is our chance, Aeran.. This 'Lord Voldemort' that people have talked about for all this time, he's got it all, looks, intelligence, power, ambition, talent. He will be a Dark Lord like no one has ever seen! We need to secure a position amongst his highest rankest for the most amount of influence." Ethilia said firmly.

"What little hesitation I had is gone now with your confidence. We will have to double our efforts if we want to finish it in time, and present it to this Lord Voldemort. We will surely be allowed into the highest ranks immediately if we manage to strongly impress him on our first meeting." Aeran replied with finality. "We'll rise back to our original power, and restore our pride by becoming his top lieutenants."

"Undoubtedly, I'm convinced that this'll work! It just needs a bit more time, in the meantime you know what to do." Ethilia said with what could only be fascination.

"Yes, more subjects." Aeran said with a cold tone before continuing. "If we get this to work even Alberic might become the heir we always wanted him to be. He could even join if the results end up as we expect them to."

Footsteps were heard on the old wooden floor in the house, and Harry soon saw the Alberic from the memory appear from behind the corner in the hallway he and the older Alberic stood in.

He had matured again, but the most change mostly lied in his posture and expression. The insecure movements and uncertain look that had always been present, were now replaced for a steady march and resolved eyes. He had clearly made up his mind on what he wanted to do, and who he wanted to be in the future.

"Father, mother." Alberic said calmly after opening the doors, and entering the study area with a steady pace. A determined expression upon his face.

"..What is it?" Aeran said looking at him with a searching look, likely wondering if Alberic had heard anything before entering.

"I'm sorry." Alberic said bluntly, bowing his head slightly in front of his parents before looking back up at them again.

"Sorry?" Aeran asked with a frown his bearded face moving a bit. "For or about what?"

"I have decided not to continue my practice of the Arts! I have no desire to do so anymore, never truly had, I also wish to inform you of the fact that I intend to marry someone of my own choice! Again, I'm sorry!" Alberic said in a rush, taking a breath before continuing. "I have tried my best for months- no, years, but everything points to the fact that I simply am not capable of the things you ask of me. Not even if I were to spend a whole lifetime on it. I do hope however, that I can prove myself somehow in the future, but I won't live that for that purpose alone anymore." Alberic finished sounding like it had been on his chest for a long time as he looked quite relieved to have it out of his system.

Anger flashed dangerously before his father's eyes, and Harry briefly wondered if he was going to hit or curse him.

Instead Aeran calmed himself again when Ethilia halted him by putting a hand on his arm. Looking at him with a pointed look that spoke volumes between them.

Alberic in the meantime hadn't shrunk back, and instead stood at the ready to receive anything his parents might do with a stiff posture.

"Very well, Alberic." Aeran said sounding strangely collected.

"I know that I am not the s-what?" The younger man said with a shocked tone and expression, not believing that his parents were accepting it so readily.

"It's fine." Ethilia repeated for Aeran. Making the exchange even stranger by actually smiling. "We understand."

"I-uh. Thanks!" Alberic said looking overjoyed by the news before stepping back toward the door. "Then.. I'll take my leave!" He continued, trying to sound calm and collected while trying to quickly leave, as if afraid that his parents would change their minds if he stayed too long.

"Wait." Aeran commanded softly, making Alberic freeze In his tracks. "There is one condition your mother and I will leave upon you now that you have returned home again for this summer."

"Yes, father?" Alberic asked tentatively, slowly looking back and forth between his parents.

"The basement." Aeran said with a look that nearly froze Harry on the spot too. "Under no circumstances are you to enter the basement. None."

Alberic visibly swallowed and nodded mutely before answering. "I-Is that all? I'm not allowed into the basement?"

Ethilia nodded once. "That is all."

Alberic softly spoke his agreement and closed the door, ending the fragment of the memory with it.

"I was elated at the time. My parents had released me from their expectations, and I was allowed to be with Avelina. I often wondered what was in the basement during my summer at home, but I was too happy, too carefree to care about what was down there. I even ignored the rumors for a while, the rumors of the next great Dark Lord. I simply wanted to be with Avelina, and forget about everything. My family, my duties, my responsibilities… and my common sense." Alberic said with a empty smile behind his beard before letting it fall away.

"I would soon learn the mistake of avoiding problems that were right in front of you." Alberic said quietly. "Seventh year came, and the rumors were becoming too much to ignore, mentions of the new and present Dark Lord were circulating even through Hogwarts itself now with hushed whispers. In the meantime my parents became even more withdrawn and secretive toward me, and the subject of the basement as time passed. Naturally this served to lift the haze of happiness from my eyes, allowing me to see that something was definitely amiss."

Harry saw the blurry tones around them shift into a clear image again. Around them were narrow walls that formed a small path ahead, leading downward to a heavy looking door with a big, iron lock on it.

"Eventually curiosity got the better of me, and I decided to take a look when the night was dark and the house lay silent during the Christmas holiday.." Alberic said with regret in his voice.

"What did you find?" Harry asked quietly.

"Our undoing." Alberic replied simply.

Harry didn't know what he meant but understood that he was just going to have to wait and see for himself.

"Alohomora." Alberic whispered, catching the heavy lock when it snapped open to prevent it from smashing down onto the floor. Carefully putting it down on the ground before opening the door.

They followed the young Alberic into the dark basement, and watched him lit up his wand with a Lumos as he stealthily moved further inside, curiosity guiding him.

Harry knew that it was cold in the basement as he saw goosebumps rise up on the arms of the younger Alberic. The walls around them were dark and made out of stone, reminding Harry's of Snape's dungeon in Hogwarts.

The way Alberic carefully moved about and the tense atmosphere in the basement almost made Harry feel like he too needed to sneak around. It made a foreboding feeling rise from within him.

The basement was spread out underneath the house, but wasn't all that big as Alberic soon appeared to have found something as he suddenly inhaled sharply and stumbled back, nearly dropping his wand in the process.

Harry stepped forward, and could clearly see the wild-eyed, shocked expression on Alberic's face in the white light of his Lumos. Making Harry wonder why he looked so startled.

Alberic soon recovered somewhat, and slowly redirected the light back to whatever it was that he had seen.

Harry felt a spike of dread shoot through his stomach when he saw that there was a limp body of a young man propped up against the wall. It was completely slack and lifeless, and had one of his wrists above him shackled against the wall. Showing a limp arm that kept the body mostly upright in a sitting position of the floor. His legs sprawled out underneath him.

"W-what is this?" Alberic asked looking mortified at the corpse before taking note of his clothing. "A.. muggle? What is a muggle doing here?"

The cold and dark room was suddenly bathed in light as the torches around them sprang to life with a flicker, forcing Harry to squint his eyes for a few seconds to adjust to the new intensity.

When he regained vision he saw more bodies lined up against the stone walls, both men and women, their ages seemed to vary from young adolescents to full adults. They too seemed to be muggles and all appeared to be dead.

Between the bodies and in the middle of the room stood a single pedestal. Claw like spikes reached up that proudly held up a blood red orb. The surface was swirly and occasionally a streak of ominous black would glide by before mixing with the crimson colors again.

"They are here to.. help, to help further our goals." Aeran said from behind them, causing Alberic to whirl around in shock. Coming face to face with his Father.

"Father, what is this!? Why are there dead muggles in here?" Alberic asked, taking a few steps back from the imposing figure of his father in trepidation of the whole situation.

"This is the project we have been working on for years." Ethilia answered simply as she too stepped into the room.

Harry saw Alberic's eyes shift between his parents warily.

"T-that doesn't answer my question, why are they even here in the first place?" Alberic asked before his eyes flicked toward the orb. "And what is that thing?"

"Calm yourself, Alberic." Aeran said moving to stand next to the crimson orb, looking at it with pride, and complete disregard for the bodies around him before turning back to his son. "This here, is what we have come to call; The Void Sphere. It took years, nearly centuries, but with Ethilia's knowledge on the Dark Arts, and my expertise in the field we have finally succeeded!"

"It's practically finished and will soon become the instrument to restore our family, our wealth, and our position. It's our salvation to recover what was lost!" Ethilia spoke reverently, her eyes widening to reveal an obsessive gaze in them.

"Father, mother, please! Why can't we just forget about this whole business of trying to climb the social ladder, and just be happy with what we have?" Alberic pleaded desperately. "We don't need it."

Aeran's features consorted in a furious and near mad expression. "Silence yourself, insolent child!" Aeran shouted with fury, whipping his wand out and striking his son down with a malicious looking red beam.

Alberic gave a shout of pain and dropped down onto his knees, clutching his abdomen where he had been struck before looking back up again at his father, surprised that for the first time in his life his father had physically hurt him. His mother looked on, her schooled expression maybe even more frightening than the furious one from Aeran.

"What do you even know about it!? You weren't there when we slowly lost everything! Our wealth vanished, our pride got tarnished, and our very own worth was diluted!" Aeran spat out spitefully. "You have been useless right from the start.. if anything you are a detriment to us."

Alberic looked to be more hurt by the awfully direct words of his father than the actually Curse itself, but lifted himself back to his feet nonetheless.

"But fear not, my son. We will soon be able to fix everything with our invention, and mend what has been broken right from the start.." Aeran said ominously, his voice turning ice cold.

"W-what are you talking about?" Alberic asked fearfully at the behavior of his parents.

Ethilia stepped forward and joined her husband's side. "The purpose of the Void Sphere is to establish a connection to the Dark Arts, or the Gift as some have begun to call it recently, the same connection we, the Greengrass family, have always had and the same connection you now lack.. The first in the family as a matter of fact."

"I- don't-" Alberic began with a glance toward the pedestal between his parents, but was cut off when Ethilia continued.

"But we can repair that now for you after all of our hard work. Ours and that of these muggles.." Ethilia said motioning to the lifeless bodies nearby. "Half of them died to feed our creation with energy to sustain it, the other half died during the experiments to forcibly open their connection to the Dark Arts by using the powers of the Void Sphere. The minds and bodies of mere muggles don't last long however, which Is likely due to the fact that they have no magic to stabilize the connection. It backfired on them, but provided us with sufficient information to complete it. A pity, but little that could be done about it."

"H-how could you? Both of you.." Alberic asked, looking mortified. "Who would want something like that?"

"The new Dark Lord of course." Aeran said seriously, putting his hand on the crimson orb affectionately. "We will soon ask for an audience and display the powers of our creation to him, we'll be accepted instantly into his highest rankings! Imagine how many more talented and capable followers he could recruit-no, _create_ with our invention!"

"We will prove ourselves by giving him the means to build an army he himself can choose and pick! Our family will surely get the recognition it deserves for delivering him this exceptional tool. Everything will we restored to us, and return to how it was always supposed to be."

"No! We shouldn't do this! People on the streets are scared, they say that this man is cruel and ruthless." Alberic said shaking his head.

Aeran ignored him and simply smiled, but it only ended up looking dangerous and slightly mad. "Come Alberic, you will have the honor of being the first successful subject. We will mend your little problem right here and right now. "

"With this you can become the heir and successor we always wanted you to be." Ethilia said spreading her arms to him comfortingly with the same small smile that reflected her inner state of mind. "You want that too, don't you?"

Harry could see a million thoughts race through Alberic's head and a whirlpool of emotions swirl within him as he was torn between his morals, and satisfying his parents now that the chance had arisen.

Alberic took one, then two steps forward to his parents before suddenly stopping with a pained look.

"Avelina wouldn't want me to do this.. and neither do I. I can't do it, mother, father.. I can't. I won't try to change myself anymore, and I won't join Voldemort with you either." Alberic said growing more assured of his words toward the end.

"That girl again.." Ethilia said disdainfully, slightly turning her head to her husband. "She's a negative influence, Aeran."

"It would have come down to this either way." Aeran said softly as he maintained eye contact with his son and shifted to a dueling position, his features darkening.

"It's a pity that you have developed yourself in the wrong way, Alberic." He said threateningly before firing off a new Curse.

Alberic's eyes widened in surprise but this time he was better prepared, and erected a barrier just in time to deflect his father's Curse.

"You dare?" Hissed Aeran, firing off new Curses to see his son defend himself by raising shields much to his anger. "You dare hide behind a shield? You dare defy your parents until the very end? The audacity! At the very least you fight back like a man!"

"Father, please stop!" Alberic pleaded desperately from behind his shield that was beginning to break apart. "I don't want to fight you!"

"Of course you don't, because you're weak.." Aeran said snidely, abruptly stopping his assault before exchanging a meaningful look to Ethilia. "If you do not wish to fight me then maybe you'll fair better against other opponents.."

Ethilia stepped forward and gave a swish of her wand, causing the chained bodies along the walls to be released from their bonds and slump down onto the floor lifelessly. She continued with her wand movements before Alberic could question her actions.

"Aut Surgent Umbrae!"

"No.. don't.." Alberic tried making Harry wonder what she was doing.

His answer was quickly answered as the bodies on the floor stirred and slowly rose to either a crawling or standing position. Their heads hung slack upon their bodies as if no strength or control was in their neck muscles, arms dangled in either a weird angle or limply by their sides while their feet dragged themselves across the floor closer to Alberic.

"Seize him." Ethilia said simply, standing back as the Inferi hurried their pace after the command of their mistress.

"I'm sorry." Alberic said apologetically before firing a Incendio toward the nearest Inferius that moaned deliriously at him, lighting it up in flames.

He quickly started to fire combinations of Reducto's to keep them at bay, and Incendio's to finish them off completely as their broken bodies would only work themselves toward him again despite their physical state.

Luckily for Alberic there weren't that many of them and he managed to pick them off one by one in his routine, making each Inferius cry out in unnatural screams before finally slumping down as their bodies shriveled and crumbled from the effects of the all-consuming fire on their flesh.

Harry could see Alberic struggle in regret for attacking and further maiming the bodies of innocents, and disgust as the pungent smell of burning flesh quickly filled the large, but closed off basement room. Harry was glad that unlike Alberic, he was unable to smell it in the safety of the memory.

For a moment Ethilia seemed to be ready herself to deliver more, but Aeran halted her with a hand.

"..You impress me in the wrong way again, Alberic, I would have expected you to have given up by now." Aeran said discouragingly toward his ailing son.

"W-we can still turn back, let's just destroy it.." Alberic replied with a strained voice actually looking ready to give up despite his own words.

"Destroy our life's work? Never.." Answered Aeran, the fanatical gleam in his eyes telling Harry that he found his son's question simply funny. "Crucio!"

Alberic had no time to react shocked and dived out of the way, letting the torturing Curse blow a hole in the floor where he stood moments ago before returning fire for the first time against his father with a light blue and red spell.

Aeran slightly leaned away letting the blue beam pass him by narrowly, and batted Alberic's red spell away with a grin before sending a volley of spells back. "Dolore! Premere! Crucio!"

Alberic raised a shield again to absorb the first two, but was thrown back against the cold, stone wall of the basement after the Unforgivable obliterated his shield. His chest and arms convulsed slightly, likely having suffered a bit of the torture Curse after it blasted through his defenses.

"Give up, Alberic, you have no chance at winning this." Ethilia advised as she looked down on her tired son. "Only if you embrace it can you become as strong as us."

Alberic slowly pushing himself up with trembling arms, and ragged breaths.

"I know that I have no chance at winning, I wasn't planning to either.." He said with a exhausted look, indicating behind them.

"Aeran! The Sphere!" Ethilia shouted in a panic after she followed Alberic's gaze. "It's been hit!"

"What!? When?" Aeran asked wildly, whipping his head back to see that it had multiple cracks upon the once smooth surface. Ethilia was already inspecting it frantically, weaving her wand in complex patterns.

"Expelliarmus!" Shouted Alberic using his father's lapse of concentration as an opening for his disarming spell.

Aeran's wand was ripped from his hand and caught by his son, forcing him to turn back with an expression so consorted in rage that it was almost inhumane.

"YOU!" He said lividly, veins making themselves know upon the sides of his forehead. "Do you have ANY idea of what you've done!?"

"I do.. father is a skilled and proud dueler, I knew that you wouldn't block my spells. Forcing you to deflect it with your wand was a feat in itself.. But I had been aiming for the Sphere from the start." Alberic said with an apologetic and weak smile. "...I will destroy it for everyone's good."

"You fool!" Aeran shouted before whirling back to his wife. "This is our hand-made perfection in physical form! Ethilia, stabilize it. Now!"

Colors inside the orb swirled dangerously, crimson red and pitch black swirled inside ominously. A thick, black liquid was starting to ooze out from the cracks on the surface despite Ethilia's efforts.

"I don't think that I can.. there too much magic is disarray!" Ethilia said with panic in her voice, the prospect of losing the orb instilling her with fear. "It's becoming too much!"

Dark pulses of unstable magic started to pulse from the Sphere, and reverberate through the entire room of the basement. Rattling torches in their holders, and causing their lights to flicker haphazardly.

Alberic seemed to realize the true extent of the power that the Sphere wielded and started to reach out to his parents in concern. "We need to get out of here! That thing is going to explode any moment, there is no saving it! The magic leaking out of it alone is harmful!"

Aeran's eyes nearly seemed to glow as he harnessed the raw Dark Magic from the very air around them, and blasted Alberic away by thrusting his hand out, without the use of his wand. Launching his son out of the room, and against the stone wall with a cracking sound upon impact.

"Get away! You've ruined everything!" Aeran shouted resentfully, madness looking ready to take him over as he rather risked his life to save his invention than live without it. "Such is the way! Darkness shields as much as it threatens!"

"Close the fractures! I will contain the magic!" Aeran commanded wildly. The magic pulses around them thundering through their bodies.

"I'm.. trying!" Ethilia ground out desperately as a trial of blood began to stream out of her nose, and down her chin. The magic she tried to control destroying her from within.

Even Aeran, despite being the powerhouse of the two, couldn't withstand the devastating magic either as his condition worsened rapidly in his attempt to try and control the Dark magic that ran amok from the Sphere. His eyes became bloodshot, his hair greyed, and blood soon started to flow out from his ears and nose while his skin quickly started to lose its pigment.

"Stop it! It's impossible!" Alberic pleaded with his obsessed parents, clutching his chest is pain. His wands out of reach, having lost them during the blast of his father.

"I-I can't.." Ethilia said weakly as her eyes slowly rolled back and limply fell down, having finally lost against the onslaught of magic destroying her body.

"NO!" Shouted Aeran desperately, whether it was in genuine concern for his wife or the fact that her support in controlling the dangerous Sphere fell away Harry didn't know.

The fractures quickly became big ruptures, causing the black liquid to pour out in an unstoppable flood and flow down the pedestal. The tremors intensified in an instant, making Aeran grunt in pain while cracks appeared on the floor and walls.

The orb exploded.

A flood of impenetrable shadows sprang forth from within the Sphere with an unearthly, shrill roar. Quickly extinguished all sources of light in the basement.

Aeran hastily jumped back and ran toward his wand in an attempt for protection, but suddenly tripped and fell during the way.

His bloodshed eyes reflected his fears when he saw that one of his legs had been caught by dark appendages of the shadows that still continued to pour from the orb in a rapid tempo, latching on to anything that they could find and disintegrating it into nothing.

"Release me!" He said with an angry but tired voice from the damage his body had already suffered as he clawed as the incorporeal substance that bound him.

His efforts quickly proved fruitless however, as it quickly continued to crawl up his torso. His face became ashen and his will seemed disintegrate alongside his body when he saw the rapidly crumbling body of his wife not too far away.

"I- I can help!" Alberic said as he desperately hoisted himself to his feet, frantically looking for a way to help in the dark dungeon.

"GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!" Aeran shouted at him mustering the last bits of strength inside of him. "Be useful for once in your life.. and make sure.. that the family line doesn't end!"

"Aeran Greengrass.." He wheezed out as chips fell down from his pained face. "Doesn't die a peaceful death!" He exclaimed with finality, grabbing one of the sharp shards from the broken orb nearby and promptly slamming it down into his chest, right into his heart.

Harry could hardly see anymore, but vaguely saw the form of Alberic scramble away in a rush of fear and adrenaline to escape the encroaching shadows while Aeran's body became the central point of a swirling vortex, sucking in everything around him.

Alberic stumbled a few times as he ran with his broken ribs, his ragged panicked breaths coming out in a frantic pace. He made a final sprint when he saw light shine through the basement door from behind the cracks on the sides, crashed through it, and slammed the door shut behind him.

Behind the thick door, Harry could swear that he faintly heard the wails of anguished souls echo in their sweet release and fulfilled vengeance.

Alberic slid down the door in exhaustion and trembled continuously. His face was white, and his hair lay flat against his forehead in cold sweat as he took deep breaths to try and calm himself.

"Mom, dad.." Whispered Alberic as the memory ended and faded to black.

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**More gets explained in the next chapter.**

**Events with the war against Grindelwald are obviously with differences here, namely the scale of people that were involved, outcome and location. There is no storyline of Deathly Hallows between Dumbledore and Grindelwald (since they don't exist here!) but the general events leading up to it stayed the same.**

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**Spells and their names. (not official ones)**

**Bellua Ignis: The Beast Fire. Fiendfyre**

**Aut Surgent Umbrae: Dead Arise. Creating Inferi**

**Premere: Squeeze. Self-explanatory **

**Dolor: Pain. Self-explanatory**

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**References:**

**Dumbledore! Harry thought, suddenly realizing where he had heard from Grindelwald before. Chapter:20**

**Harry frowned when he saw the familiar handwriting and leaned closer over her work + Harry did vaguely remember seeing the names of Ethilia and Aeran in the register of family members that had edited it. Chapter:23**

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**Zxynwin****: Great that you enjoy it. Thanks for letting me know about the peron, it's platform now. Sorry about other mistakes, I would like to remove them, but the problem is that I can't see them. My Beta is currently working to improve my first chapters though so hopefully I will be able to Beta my chapters one day before I release them. The catching up will take time though.**

**Thanks for your thoughts people, what do you think this time? Hope that you enjoyed either way.**


	30. Choice and The Second Locket

**Disclaimer: The Harry Potter Universe and all the characters belong to J.K. Rowling.**

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**Many thanks to TabiPrewett for Beta'ing this chapter!**

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They were back in the dark, candle lit office.

Harry remained silent. Daphne had been right in saying that things had gone quite differently, her grandparents had been planning on actually joining Voldemort would likely even have succeeded in doing so if it hadn't been for Alberic's unintentional interference.

How would the First Wizarding War have gone if Voldemort had used that Void Sphere to create a more powerful and bigger army? Would it really have worked to awaken people to the Gift like he himself had done accidentally at Hogwarts?

"The encounter with my parents had been planned. They knew that I would eventually go down during my summer at home. The iron lock on the door wasn't to keep the door shut; its real purpose was to magically notify Aeran about when I would finally enter the basement." Alberic said morosely. "The confrontation itself was bound to happen, as for the outcome.. things didn't go down the way they wanted. Again."

Harry silently looked at Alberic. A man that had sought to make his parents proud of him throughout his entire youth yet never succeeded. Even now he looked saddened by the memories of the events. Harry's first impression of Alberic was that of a blunt, and maybe even a bit cold man, but he could now easily see the same Alberic from the memories in front of him.

The morose look was soon gone however, so Alberic continued.

"Investigations followed naturally, but the magic had completely eradicated any trace left of the Inferi and my parents. Nothing was left. I told them pieces of the truth while shielding my thoughts from their inquisitive gazes, 'my parents died after experimenting with strong, unstable magic and caused an explosion, resulting in their deaths'..." Alberic said, picking up a quill again to spin it between his fingers. "I destroyed all their research on the Void Sphere, I didn't even look at the documents myself in fear of accidentally reading and remembering a lethal piece of information.."

"And the Death Eaters? They didn't approach you?" Harry asked curiously.

Alberic shook his head. "Voldemort and his followers didn't show much interest in us, my parents hadn't contacted them yet fortunately... Not that it would have mattered after they had died though. We still had no substantial amount of money, and the family line was thinned out again, not to mention that Avelina and I were no fighters either."

Alberic let out a sound of amusement, but it sounded hollow. "Funny how at the time, I found myself in practically the same position my father, and mother had put themselves in, history had repeated itself for the Greengrass family."

"But you did things differently this time." Harry replied respectfully.

"I did. The story after this isn't all that interesting or new from what Daphne might have told you. We laid low during the second war just like everyone else, Avelina worked multiple jobs part-time, I studied to become potions master by learning every book Avelina could buy for me. Then you ended the war by defeating Voldemort, and we took that time of freedom and celebration to continue the apothecary line Avelina inherited from her parents." Alberic said smiling uncharacteristically warmly as he continued. "It ended up being a success, business grew and expanded. In response we paid off our lingering debts, reclaimed the Greengrass manor, and gave birth to Daphne and Astoria."

"Which brings us to the present." Harry said with a nod recognizing much of the things Alberic said, although in a slightly different way and order from Daphne. "How are things now with the Death Eaters? The Greengrass' have power and wealth again, right? Daphne told me that you would occasionally get visits from Voldemort's recruiters here."

"Correct, they have visited multiple times, but I made it absolutely clear a few weeks ago, when I finally joined the Order, that I was not interested in joining or following Voldemort, and preferred a neutral stance. Of course this will only be temporarily. There will be no neutrality in this war." Alberic answered quietly toward the end.

"But turning back to the topic at hand.. I think you can understand why I cannot help you any further than this. I do not wish to use the spells that have been ingrained into me unless I absolutely have to. I wouldn't even be of much use to you. I know that you have the very same Gift that my parents had. The same trait they had hoped to kindle within me with the Void Sphere." Alberic said.

"If you decide to continue, you will easily learn it, but I guess you already discovered that yourself, haven't you?" Alberic asked knowingly.

"I have." Harry answered easily, remembering how quick he learned the Opanare and Mortigore in the Chamber of Secrets in comparison to spells of other schools.

Alberic nodded seriously. "Something inescapable seems to be bound to you. Do what you think will give you the best results, Harry. I too hope for our victory in the upcoming war so that my family can be safe again."

"Either path is dangerous. You can choose to stop here, and remain like you are now. Meaning that you will need a great amount of luck and people to help fight for you.." Alberic said quietly before lifting his eyes and staring into Harry's intently. "..Or you choose to pursue the Dark Arts to grow stronger and increase your chances of victory at the risk of your very own self."

Harry nodded grimly. "I fight for the same reasons. I wish to save and protect everyone."

Alberic didn't give any signs of hearing him as he held his gaze like a guardsmen. "But know this, I will be your enemy if you end up being dominated by what should be controlled. The Arts will never again destroy, or endanger my family. No matter who you are."

Harry nodded slowly and firmly in response. "I won't be making any inventions like your parents did. I only seek powerful spells for use in battle."

"Yes, I don't think you would go there either, but my parents too only started with the thought of inventing some Dark spells to make an extra bit of gold."

Alberic's chilling gaze vanished with a blink of his eyes as he looked back to his quill. "Choose for yourself, Harry. You have seen only a fraction of the things that my father could do, I didn't even stand a chance against him from start to finish. I would still lose if I were able to go up against him today."

"Your father was strong, yes." Harry agreed remembering how Alberic had been thrown back against the wall by a disarmed Aeran. Now that he thought about it, Alberic had likely survived the explosion of the orb because of that.

He watched Alberic rise from his chair and pick up the Pensieve before putting it back inside the cabinet again. "You have trouble with your wand, right? Daphne explained it to me in one of her letters."

".. I do." Harry said before laughing tentatively. "Daphne sure does talk an awful lot about me."

Alberic chuckles as he turned back from the cabinet with a small, rectangle shaped box. "She does. She could write whole essays, but these things are always written in-between the lines of course, she doesn't write about what you do down there in clear words to be safe."

Alberic's expression quickly sobered as he sat back down in front of him behind his desk.

"I too had problems with my wand, but that was because I was forcing myself to practice, my wand disagreed which is completely logical as I too wasn't suited for the Dark arts. I had no affinity for it, it repulsed me even. My wand often ended up being an extra weigh for me during those times."

"What I don't understand is why it's causing trouble for you. Normally people with the Gift get a wand which suits them accordingly, but you sit here before me with both the Gift, the will to practice willingly and a wand that seems to be wrong for you all at the same time." Alberic said questionably. "It doesn't add up."

Harry frowned, but understood nonetheless. This would explain why he suddenly felt himself at odds with his wand, but Alberic was missing an important piece of information. "I.. I actually didn't have it since the beginning. It.. was suddenly just.. there."

Alberic's eyes bored in his searchingly, and his words were clear in the silent office. "That is unheard of. How? What have you been doing?"

"I didn't do any experimenting or the likes if that's what you think, it just.. happened." Harry said slowly. He couldn't just start talking about how he accidentally absorbed Voldemort's artifacts during the night in the corridor, and the Chamber of Secrets with Ginny..

Alberic looked at him for a prolonged time before making a thoughtful hum. "Attaining it after you got your wand would somewhat explain it. If your ability had been.. dormant during your wand picking then you picked your wand without taking that into calculations, which proves to be a major factor."

"For now." He said quietly, pushing the small, black box toward him across his desk. "You will take this with you."

Harry picked up the box and opened it after Alberic nodded at him.

Inside rested a single black wand, carved spirally from top to bottom, the handle was slightly curved and had a few silver linings embedded into it. It looked to be around thirteen inches in length.

"Isn't this..?" Harry said looking at the wand that definitely belonged to Aeran Greengrass, the only personal thing Alberic had left of his father, because of his successful attempt in disarming him prior to his death.

"My father's wand, yes, a person who was born and raised with the Gift. It should serve you better than your current… Use it when you are alone or when the situation is dire. Suddenly using a different wand will undoubtedly raise questions." Alberic clarified.

Harry shook his head and made to decline his offer. "I- I can't take this. It's not mine, it's-"

"-It doesn't matter, my father is dead and the things he did with that wand only served to inflict me, and others with agony." Alberic said bluntly, cutting him off. "Take it, and give it better use than he did."

Harry looked back at the wand in the box. Feeling his determination quickly settling in with each second that passed. This wand could certainly help him in the future. Every little bit could make the final difference. He knew that. It was what he now strived for.

He grabbed the wand by the handle and instantly felt power surge through him, it felt.. confident in the secure grip of his hand, and hummed with a resonance Harry thought long forgotten in his own wand. For a moment, it was as if he was at Ollivander's shop again.

"Thank you… I will make sure that I do." He said feeling Daphne's locket shift slightly with each breath he took.

* * *

"So." He began, his voice stirring her from her thoughts. "That was quite different from what you told me at the beginning."

She looked up from her sitting position on the edge of her bed, Harry had returned from the meeting with her father. He didn't appear to be mad, but Daphne felt anxious nonetheless. He was awfully calm. He shouldn't be.

She nodded as he sat beside her, shifting the point of gravity on the bed toward him. "I'm sorry, Harry. We didn't know each very well yet, but I really liked you and I wanted to gain your trust.. but instead of honestly telling you that there were parts about my family I couldn't talk about. I choose to pick the easy route and misled you, only parts of it were true."

He didn't respond and she leaned closer to him before reaching out for his hand with her own, slowly intertwining their fingers when he accepted her touch.

"I didn't want you to think dirty of me for having had people like that in my family not too long ago. People who were thinking of actually joining Voldemort by showing him their horrific experimentation results." Daphne continued quietly.

"You should've known that I wouldn't have thought differently about you." Harry said lightly chastising her, making her nod. He was right, she shouldn't have thought like that, but she hadn't been sure at the time.

"I know that now, especially after the visit to the Dursleys'. You are one of the few who now knows about this.. but that doesn't matter a lot, or does it?" She said morosely. "In the end I'm just making up excuses. I deceived you, I feel even more horrible now that I know what you've actually been through yourself, I didn't think it was.. that bad."

She looked down at their joined hands. At the time it had felt like the right choice- no, the most efficient choice, but she quickly grew to regret that after time passed and she got to know him even more. It had been inevitable, but she wanted to stall, and forget about it for as long as she could to avoid facing her mistakes.. until the point finally came in the Chamber of Secrets where she was forced to reveal the tip of the iceberg in order to halt his reckless practice.

Harry sighed softly beside her, and proceeded to take her chin in his hand to lift her head, making her look into his eyes.

His eyes were calm and clear, no stormy emeralds some occasionally saw from time to time whenever he was angered or frustrated.

"You aren't mad?" Daphne asked tentatively after she didn't see any rage in his eyes.

"I don't like the fact that you gave me false, or incomplete information under the intention that I would open up to you in response. Don't do that ever again." Harry said a bit harshly before softening again when he continued. "But I can understand your reasons, and I'll forgive you if you won't get mad at me for what I am about to tell you, and if you keep the promise you made with me before we came here."

"Promise? What do you..?" Daphne asked, lightly shaking her head. Not understanding what he meant- no, not _wanting_ to understand.

"Yes, promise." Harry said with a nod. "During our last practice session in the Chamber you promised that you would give me the book if I decided to continue after being shown whatever it was that you and your father had to show here." He finished indicating around them.

"What?" Daphne gasped perplexed. Increasing the grip on his hand. Why was he still saying this? "No, you can't be serious, Harry!"

"I know what to expect now Daphne. The memories, the Arts, Voldemort. I understand what it means and what it can do. I'm prepared."

He briefly stared in front of him, thoughts and feelings drifting through his eyes she wished to know.

"I've come to a decision. After today, after Little Whining, after everything you've done for me, and shown me." Harry said resolutely before releasing her hand and standing up, her gaze following him. "I know what my choice and what my drive will be."

"What do you mean?" She asked frowning in incomprehension. This was becoming weirder and weirder. What was this ominous shift? The memories with her father should have shaken him, stopped him, but instead he just looked more confident and determined.

"What I have noticed is that everyone who used the Arts went mad because they used it for their own good. Your grandparents, Voldemort, Death Eaters, and Grindelwald probably too are all examples of this." Harry said holding her locket in his hand through his shirt. Watching her also rise from the bed to stand opposite from him. "People like your father are different however, they never did it for themselves, Alberic did it in hopes of making his parents proud, he didn't do it for his own gains. Aurors too use Curses to protect others. It's intent that matters, not the kind of magic. I'm sure of it."

Daphne slowly shook her head, feeling a tight expression on her face. That didn't relieve her at all. It was all speculation. "That could be pure coincidence, you fail to mention that those people who went much too far in their actions, all had a strong connection to the Dark Arts.. Isn't it strange that my father, the first to defect from the family didn't have this supposed _Gift_?"

Harry lightly frowned, and she could see his mind work. "What you say could also be just coincidence; maybe the Gift doesn't have any link."

"No, what I think is that we are both right, Harry. Dark magic is used with negative intent, true, but the Gift is the thing that leads everyone to corruption by making the connecting ten times stronger, maybe even more, I don't know!" Daphne said throwing her hands up. He was taking this in all the wrong ways, and she didn't have solid evidence to convince him otherwise.

"Well, I don't feel very evil right now, Daphne. Do you get the feeling that I am?" Harry asked, smiling lightly as he spread his arms.

"No, of course not, stupid… that isn't my point." She admitted with a sigh. How could she ever?

"This will be my weapon, and you will be my protective hilt. It'll be fine with you around." He said conclusively as he continued to give her the same gentle smile from before and affectionately stroked a loose strand of hair out of her face. "What I have decided on is that you are my reason, you are my drive, my will, my strength, my everything. I will fight for you, bleed for you, suffer for you, and endure anything on my path if it means I can be with you again at the end of the day. You've helped me so much. I owe everything to you."

"So corny…" She said with a smile, feeling her insides melt away with emotions before they were replaced in a flash for foreboding and unsettling ones.

"But really, Harry.. you need to do those things for yourself, no one else. You need to live for yourself." Daphne said hoping that her premonition wasn't right.

"Probably, but that won't work as good. I just feel that I will do anything, use all and any kind of methods, and sacrifice all that I have to offer to ensure that you are safe and happy, preferably with me in the picture of course." He said promisingly. "My friends too. We all need to get out of this in one piece. Together."

"No, Harry.. Don't be ridiculous." She exclaimed incredulously in disbelief. He looked resolute, and calm, but only feelings of anxiety passed through her stomach at his words. "What kind of twisted way of thinking is that? What about me then? How can I just sit back and allow you to go on like that, knowing, that you don't even do this for yourself? That I'm the reason for your hardships, your battles?"

Dangerous was the only word she could think of to describe it.

He frowned somewhat at her words before looking back at her apologetically, as if the concept didn't fully register.

"I'm sorry, Daphne, but you won't be able to change my mind on this one. The thought of losing you is unbearable so I'll use that weakness as my strength." Harry said stroking her cheek, his eyes reflecting a choice that was set in stone. "Looks like I can be pretty selfish after all, right?"

She felt her frustrations flare up, he wasn't supposed to think like this, act like this, be like this! He was supposed to realize..

She slapped his hand away and stomped his chest with her fist. "You think yourself to be some kind of great, shining knight, a martyr?!"

His face didn't show any reaction to her punch, and he simply immobilized her by taking her into his arms and holding her tight when she struggled for a few seconds, trying to get out before finally giving up. His grip too secure to escape. "No, not at all, because I plan on staying with you, Daphne."

She bit her lip as he stroked the top of her head, fighting to keep her swirling emotions in check.

"Besides, won't you knock some sense into me if anything ever happens?"

She nodded and reigned in her emotions. "You bet that I will... I'll take matters into my own hands if you start acting like an even bigger idiot."

"Heh, you already broke half of your promise." Harry said as she slowly hugged him back. His heartbeat calming her. "You got mad."

"So? You're not going to forgive me now?" She asked curtly with a somewhat wet sniff.

"I will forgive you regardless, Daphne, but don't do it anymore. We don't need to." Harry gently replied. His hand slowly continuing its combing through her hair.

Daphne didn't reply and simply held their positons, feeling the shape of her locket between them.

Daphne had already seen how he enjoyed his practices with the spells he learned so far from the family book, combining this with his zealous desire to fight for her would likely prove to be a dangerous mixture. She needed to watch him even more carefully from now on.

"Don't worry, Harry. I'll make sure you'll start loving yourself someday.. I'll protect you.. from yourself." She murmured into his chest. Maybe her words would reach him better if she whispered them against his chest, close to his heart.

* * *

The following day started with Harry bumping into Daphne as he stumbled out of the fireplace in the Leaky Cauldron, nearly knocked them both down.

The trip had been arranged quicker than he had anticipated from The Order, and they would soon be meeting up with their guardian. Harry already had somewhat of an idea as to who it would be judging from the way they had to meet up.

"Sorry." He muttered when they both recovered their balance and dusted themselves.

"You can go first next time. It's obvious that you can hardly resist, but now is not the time for groping, Harry. Do that when we're alone." Daphne said raising an eyebrow slightly. Playfully and questioningly.

Harry raised his hands defensively with a small laugh. "Uh, will do?"

"Who will be going with us anyway? Why not simply have him or her Apparate us to Diagon Alley directly?" Daphne asked with a light frown.

Harry motioned for her to follow him. "Likely because it happens to be someone who can't Apparate."

"Can't Apparate? How is that even?" He heard Daphne mutter behind him to herself.

The Leaky Cauldron was just as Harry remembered it to be. Dark and shabby with a few groups of people drinking and conversing to each other, taking little notice of them and filling the bar with a buzz of chatter.

Behind the counter was Tom, looking even more baldheaded than Harry remembered him to be. Well, it had been quite some years since he last saw him after all.

Tom squinted his eyes at him as he racked him memory before seeing his scar. "Mr. Potter? It's great to see you again! You've grown so much."

Harry smiled at the bartender, but gestured to keep his voice down. He didn't want a repeat of his first time here by shaking everyone's hands again. "It's good to see you too, Tom. We're just passing thru though."

"Of course, of course." Tom said nodding his head before looking around the bar searchingly. "Hagrid should be here somewhe- Ah! There he is."

"Harry!" Boomed the familiar voice of Hagrid giving him only the time to turn around before he was caught in a bone-crushing hug. Lifting him off his feet, making Daphne slightly stammer as she feared for his bones.

"Hey, Hagrid." Harry wheezed after he was released and put back on his feet again.

The gatekeeper was just as enormous as always. The space he took up in the shabby bar only adding more feeling to it.

"An' you must be Daphne Greenhouse!" Hagrid said warmly, turning to her in the cramped space of the bar, pushing a few stools aside with his behind. "Dumbledore told me all about you! Harry's girlfriend!"

"I-it's Green_grass_." Daphne clarified as Hagrid shook her hand enthusiastically, making her small hand disappear in his own.

"Ow sorry! My bad." Hagrid said apologetically before turning back to Harry with a watery look in his eyes. "It be great that you found yerself a girlfriend, Harry, a small piece of happiness.. Your parents would have been proud of yeh."

"Thanks, Hagrid." He said to the gatekeeper, feeling a mixture of emotions at the compliment as he gave Daphne a small smile who returned it.

"Well, let's get goin' we came here fer business!" He said before walking past them, deeper into the bar.

"..Is Dumbledore really sure about this?" Daphne asked as she watched Hagrid push through the cramped bar. "I still remember Magical Care.."

"It's fine. Hagrid can be trusted with this." He said grabbing her hand and following Hagrid.

"Been busy, Harry?" Hagrid asked as they entered the small, walled courtyard of the inn.

"I have. I'm sorry that I didn't visit." Harry said as Hagrid tapped the brick wall a few times, making the stones turn and wiggle away to reveal the entrance to Diagon Alley again. Surprising Daphne a bit as she noticed that Hagrid umbrella wasn't a normal one.

"It be fine, Harry. I 'ave been very busy myself after all!" Hagrid said happily as they went down the snowy streets of Diagon Alley.

The wizarding shopping district was a lot more somber than Harry remembered it to be since the last time he came here. The streets were still quite crowded during this time of the year, but most of the wizards and witches wore big hats and hoods to hide themselves away from direct eye contact. People moved in groups like this and quickly went in a straight line from point A to B.

"You have? With what?" Harry asked curiously after he looked away from the streets to his enormous friend. Hoping that he wasn't doing anything questionable again.

Hagrid however, looked absolutely giddy as he turned back to them with fond eyes. "Constantly been goin' to the Forest lately ter take care of our hairy friend, if yeh know what I mean." Hagrid said with a wink, making harry realize somewhat dreadfully that he was talking about the giant Acromantula, Aragog, in the Dark forest.

"I take it that he's doing well then?" He asked trying to sound genuine, but failing as Daphne easily saw through it.

"Who are you two talking about?" Daphne whispered as she took his arm in hers, noticing that Hagrid treated it as a secret between the two of them.

"I'll tell you about it later.." Harry calmingly whispered back to her, thinking back on his near-death experience with the giant spider and his family in the Forest.

"He's doin' great! That ol' furball made quite the recovery yeh know, the whole colony is strengthening again. Dumbledore is a bit worried 'bout that, but I'm sure that it will be jus' fine. Aragog don't hurt a fly!" Hagrid boomed happily as Daphne gave him a look that said he was definitely going to explain it to her now.

"That's great, Hagrid.." Harry brought out a bit unenthusiastically; luckily, Hagrid didn't seem to take notice of it.

Things continued as they had planned after hearing Hagrid's forebodings words about Aragon's improving condition. Daphne quickly took him to her shops and proceeded to fit him out like a mannequin. Taking much joy in her task while Hagrid struggled to squeeze himself through the doors every time. Harry himself came with the occasional comment or two about her choice of clothes for him, but didn't really care much about what he wore, anything was better than his old ones.

Besides.. obliging to her wishes always made her smile.

Harry soon found himself with a shrunken bag of clothes in his pocket while Daphne hummed happily on his arm.

They also visited the shop of Fred and George on their way back to the Leaky cauldron after noticing the amount of colorful 'open' signs on the shop. The twins jovially greeted them and proceeded to give them free packs of all kinds of stuff from their shop like the Reusable Hangman, Skiving Snackboxes, Everlasting Eyelashes and more..

"Well, we got all that we came for, and more." Daphne said as they resumed their way back to the inn again with Hagrid.

"Finally!" Harry moaned jokingly at her, following the large back of Hagrid in front of them.

"Don't be like that; I know that you love the things I picked out for you." Daphne said with a grin, sticking close to him for more warmth against the cold around them and body contact for closeness.

"Of course I do." He said with a smile.

"Say, you don't think we can visit Ollivander's? We quite close and I'm sure that Hagrid will keep it a secret for us if we ask nicely." Daphne asked with a more serious face, referring to the problem with his wand.

"I, eh. Don't actually have to anymore, Daphne. I've solved the problem with your father's help." Harry said apologetically. Not having told her yet because of her initial reaction to his decision just the day before. Spreading the surprises out a bit had seemed like a good idea to him..

Daphne immediately frowned at him. "What do you mean 'solved'? This has been a problem for you for weeks!"

"It's not that my wand is working perfectly again, I simply got a new one from your father, it's from your grandfather to be precise."

Daphne looked slightly irritated by the sudden revelation of his new wand. "Couldn't you have told me about that a bit sooner, hm?"

"Sorry, I didn't want to unload too much on you in one go. I-" He cut himself off abruptly when an incredibly familiar feeling washed over him mid-sentence. Feelings of comfort, longing, and warmth.

"What's wrong, Harry? You're looking kind of strange.." Daphne said questioningly in response to his sudden silence.

Harry was so concentrated that he hardly registered her question in his mind. "I.. I'm not sure. Don't you feel that?" He said uncertainly. He couldn't place where he had felt it before, but it was most definitely familiar to him. He looked back up and quickly scanned the crowd around them, somehow trying to determine from which direction the compelling emotions came from.

"Harry? Feel what?" Daphne asked in a slightly worried tone beside him, lightly shaking him by the arm that she held.

"Just.. a moment." He said distractedly. Somewhere.. He was sure of it. Something was..

And then he spotted something, or rather _someone_. He didn't understand why it was coming from his direction, but he was happy that it did for in the distance stood someone he had been hoping to come across again for quite some time.

At the corner of the street shifted a short wizard with bandy legs and long, straggly haired ginger hair from underneath his hat. In one of his hands was an ancient looking suitcase Harry would recognize out of thousands.

Mundungus..

Dumbledore's words from weeks- or even months prior resurfaced from within him.

'Things might find their way back to you again. Fate can be a funny thing sometimes, turning you at corners you never thought of crossing.'

"Daphne, I need you to distract Hagrid for me." He whispered hurriedly, not taking his eyes of the wizard for a second now that he had found the dirty grave robber.

"What? No, I'm going with you if you're going somewhere again!" Daphne whispered back fiercely, following his intense gaze to see what he was looking at. She didn't know Mundungus however, and was unable to identify him from the rest of the crowd.

"That won't work this time, someone needs to stay." Harry said decisively, thinking quickly he pulled out the new Skiving Snackboxes from Fred and George's joke shop out of his pocket. Mentally thanked them for giving him a pack during their brief visit. "Please do this for me." He pleaded, the possibility of letting Mundungus get away again making him anxious.

"Fine! But you will tell me everything when you get back." Daphne snapped, relenting. "What do you want me to do?"

He pushed a few pills into her hand from the Skiving Snackbox. "Take the white one first and act shocked, and then eat the yellow one. No time to explain the rest."

"You owe me after this. A lot." Daphne whispered with a glare before taking the white pill.

The effect was instantaneous as her eyes widened comically in surprise as a sudden flood of blood burst forth from her nose.

"I-I'm bleeding!" Daphne exclaimed so truthfully it made Harry wonder whether or not she still said it on purpose or genuine shock.

People nearby immediately looked back at them in shock as the blood streaming down from her chin and dripped onto the snowy street.

"Gulpin' Gargoyles! Hold on lemme fix you right up!" Hagrid exclaimed after he turned and saw her condition.

"I-it's fine." Daphne said a bit weakly as she held a hand in front of her mouth to make it look like she was just trying to compose herself. Fainting not a second later as she stealthily took the remaining pill in the process, her eyes closing and her body collapsing in on itself.

"O-oi!" Hagrid yelled, catching her lithe body, saving her from the cold, unforgiving ground.

Having slowly retreated during the scene, Harry turned and darted into the people surrounding them. Disappearing from his faithful girlfriend and guard.

Quickly getting his sense of direction again by sensing the pulling aura of longing and warmth, he set off to the spot he last saw Mundungus.

'Sorry for doing this despite having said all those things to you, Daphne. I still mean them… but this is personal!' Harry thought apologetically. She would likely be angry after she awoke from the Fainting Fancies.

Soon the man in question came into view again and Harry watched with fast rising ire as the thieving Order member finished some kind of shady trade with an haggard looking wizard on the corner of the street. Was he selling Sirius' stuff right here and now?

'_Retrieve it__..'_

The entity's voice emerged from his thoughts in his rising anger, and Harry purposefully ignored it. He had a score to settle with the man that dared rob him of Sirius's possessions.

Mundungus clipped his ancient suitcase shut after the haggard wizard left, and looked up with a satisfied smile. It fell away abruptly, however as he now noticed Harry's fast approaching figure pushing himself through the people around him.

Harry pushed harder against the people around him, to increase his speed as Mundungus tipped his hat at him with his grubby fingers, and promptly turned on his heel to enter a nearby alleyway.

The gesture only sparked his rage more.

'Not this time Mundungus, I won't let you Apparate so easily this time..' Harry thought darkly, anxious to get his hands on the man again.

Harry broke into a sprint, quickly following him into the alley, and quietly slipped his wand out of its holster. It was a lot less crowded here as it was simply used as a dead end to Apparate away in. Forming a small network of pathways through and around all the nearby shops.

'_He has one.. retrieve it.' _

"Mortigore." He whispered, discretely casting the spell on his free hand, readying it for use, and feeling it go ice cold as the Dark spell created a layer of ice on it. Harry's sleeve hiding it from being shown clearly to any onlookers who happen to glance at him as he moved through the narrow path.

His eyes met those of Mundungus again when the man looked back fearfully before breaking out into a clumsy sprint himself. Growing more anxious as the distance between them decreased.

"Sorry, 'Arry! T-time is short, 'eh? Gotta go now!" Mundungus shouted back when Harry was quickly gaining on him.

Their footsteps echoed as the walls became higher and the light became sparser. A few cloaked, old witches watched them run by with their old hazy eyes, but Harry ignored them, his fingers were nearly grasping the back of Mundungus.

"Well, Catch 'ya later, 'Arr—rgh!"

Just as Mundungus reached the area of the Apparating zone Harry snatched onto the back of his cloak and proceeded to roughly yank him toward the wall beside them, changing his words into an abrupt sound of struggle as the collar of his suit briefly dug into his windpipe from the force.

Mundungus dropped his case onto the ground with a clatter, making the contents of his rubbish burst out as he tried to reach out for his wand.

Harry in response kneed the wand out of his hand, and quickly gripped him by the neck with his hand, freezing the thief against the wall behind him as the ice on his hand quickly latched onto his neck with a bone-chilling grip.

"Ah.. W-what's 'rong 'Arry? Ya' seem angry?" Mundungus tried to say aloofly with a face that was a mixture of fear, and discomfort as Harry nearly stood nose to nose with him.

"Don't." He began menacingly, increasing the area and thickness of the frigid ice on his neck that was locked in his grip. "..Act stupid."

The ice cracked softly as it continued to solidify on the flesh of his neck, and stone wall behind him, making him briefly pull a pained face as he clawed at the ice with his grubby fingers. "Sorry, sorry! I won't, I won't!"

"Dumbledore might have let you off easy, but I'm not him." He said breathing in the unpleasant smell of old tobacco from the man.

"I-I 'et it! 'yer angry because I nicked an' stole some of Sirius' stuff, right?" Mundungus said quickly, looking round for an escape route as he did so. His eyes quickly looking around, unfortunately for him there was nothing and no one nearby.

"I wouldn't think about it Mundungus.. Moving now might damage your neck. This isn't just any freezing smell." Harry said threateningly when he noticed his looks. He felt little sympathy for the man. This coward had been shamelessly robbing him of Sirius' possessions. Mundungus' anxious behavior and petty excuses actually reminded him of Pettigrew a bit…

"Yes, I noticed! " Mundungus said laughing nervously as he quickly removed his fingers from his frozen neck after noticing that those too nearly froze stuck to the surface of the incredibly cold ice. Wha' is it tha' ya' want from poor me, 'Arry! I don't 'ave all the stuff anymore from his 'ouse! Look it's all on the groun' now!"

Harry slowly turned his gaze away from his, daring him to move a muscle as he looked at the contents of the ancient suitcase which were spread all around them on the snow covered ground. Judging by the looks of some of the items he could make a solid guess in saying they weren't all legal.

"_Locket.."_

He saw it lying on the ground not a second after the entity's voice whispered it from the back of his mind. Right there in the snow covered ground laid the locket from one of Dumbledore's memories. Slytherin's locket.. in the same moment he was also able to place the feelings he initially felt coming from Mundungus' direction. They were the same emotions he felt during his visits to Dumbledore's office when Gaunt's ring was still intact.

He rounded back on the shivering Mundungus.

"Where did you find this?! And what are you planning to do with it?" He questioned, gesturing to the golden locket on the ground.

Mundungus' eyes glance down to the spot he indicated with difficulty as his immobilized neck prevented him from looking down.

"I-I stumbled upon it durin' my time at Grimmaul' place!-"

"-During your _theft_." Harry corrected with a glare.

"Yes, yes!" Mundungus said hastily trying to nod in the process, but only ending up hurting himself as the ice didn't allow his skin to move so easily, and broke his skin into miniscule cuts.

"I stumbled upon it an' took it. It's a solid piece of gold embedded with emeralds after all, eh? C-can't blame a man for a little bit of foolishness in the prospect of wealth, right?!" He asked in an attempt for sympathy.

"You already stole plenty from Sirius and made enough money for yourself off of it. You found this locket in his house, and thus I think it's safe to say that it belongs to Sirius." Harry said glancing back to the S shaped locket. "I'm taking it with me. Sirius' stuff.. is my stuff."

Mundungus didn't look all that excited about handing it over, but the biting and inescapable prison of ice on his neck quickly served to change his mind.

"F-fine! You can take it and in return you can let me go, right? Let's say this never happened and be on our own way again?" Mundungus relented with a small hiss of pain.

Harry gave a sharp nod, let go of his neck and stepped back. Sinking down to his knees so that he could pick up Slytherin's locket… It was warm to the touch despite having lain in the cold snow.

"Harry, mate, warming and melting Charms aren't working! What is this?" Mundungus exclaimed, trying to melt the ice with an array of heating and melting Charms to no avail.

"It's just as I said Mundungus, It's not just any freezing spell." He said dismissively, turning the locket over in his hand. The serpentine S was inlaid with green, glittering stones, and Harry could briefly understand why Mundungus had wanted to steal it. Still, this was stolen from him and Sirius. He had every right to take it back.

Besides Dumbledore would also likely want to see this once he returned to school.

"It's because the ice is being sustained by my magic. Here." Harry explained before cutting his flow of magic to the spell trapping him with his wand.

Mundungus stumbled forward a bit as the ice binding him to the alley wall behind him instantly fell away in chunks and splashes, revealing a red, irritated neck with a few blue spots here and there.

Harry realized that might've gone too far with his spell as he saw his blue and lightly damaged neck.. He had been sure not to make it too powerful; however the effect was still more than he anticipated. Practicing on inanimate objects didn't always give much, or the correct information on how it would play out against live targets.

He shook himself out of his thoughts and focused back on the matter at hand, namely a spluttering Mundungus.

"You don't have to make an attempt in retrieving the items you already sold. Just remember Mundungus... You won't do this ever again, and this didn't happen. I'll keep your little trades here secret in return. I can tell that half of your wares are illegal." Harry said with a deliberate look. He actually wasn't all that knowledgeable on the forbidden trades, but apparently his bluff worked as Mundungus nodded.

"Yeah! Definitely didn't happen!" He said quickly, scooping his goods from the snowy ground back into the ancient looking suitcase before standing back up again with an apprehensive look. "Later!" He Disapparated not a second later.

Harry let out a condensing breath.

Would Sirius have commended or berated him for this? He wasn't sure. His magic usage might not have been praiseworthy, but he did get back at Mundungus for the things he had done. Harry wasn't going to let wrongdoings against the people he cared for slide so easily anymore. This wasn't the first time either, Nott was testimony to that.

Harry looked back to the beautifully engraved locket in his hand. The feelings were even stronger now that he held it in his hand. The amount he felt from Gaunt's ring had been less at the time, but that was likely because of the protective enchantments Dumbledore put around it.

Another important thing he noticed that he was the only one who felt these things. During his time at Dumbledore's office he just assumed that the aged wizard was capable of easily ignoring the remaining affects, but Daphne's reaction today indicated that this wasn't the case. Harry was the only one who felt these things, he was feeling something else. Something only he sensed.

He made to hang Slytherin's locket around his neck before stopping mid-action as the entity's voice drifted through his mind again.

"_Don't.. wear.. the locket. Another.. Artifact_."

Harry nearly dropped the locket, and quickly stuffed it into the pocket of his coat before stalking away in a brisk pace. Back to Hagrid and Daphne.

'An artifact!? Another one?' He asked himself.

If what the entity tried to say with those words were true, then it meant that the locket was another artifact. If so then this too once belonged to Voldemort, and would likely be enchanted like the ring that took Dumbledore's hand.

The feelings he got from the locket were comforting and familiar, but why would he think about putting it on when he could easily hold on to it in other ways? Not only that but he was already wearing Daphne's locket. Why let another one constantly clash against it?

Harry wasn't glad to admit it, but the entity had likely prevented him from doing something very dangerous just now…

But, another artifact, he found another artifact.. Not to mention that this too came from one of the memories Dumbledore showed him, just like Gaunt's ring. Mere coincidence or a link..?

No, the Diary had also been an artifact. There was a definite link. Voldemort definitely enchanted each of his prized possessions with Dark and powerful magic. Harry couldn't think of a reason as to why he did so, but he decided not to try and understand the mind of the monster that continuously tried to kill everyone he cared for.

In any case, the entity was right in saying that there were more artifacts out there to collect. He himself just happened to stumble on another one again by pure coincidence after all.

Harry quickly made his way back, ignoring the glazed eyes of the old witch again, and darted out of the alley back onto the main street. Not a second too late either as he saw a towered Hagrid plowing himself through the crowds on the street in a panicked and searching manner. A conscious Daphne moving behind him, taking advantage of the gaps he created.

"R-right here, Hagrid." He said tiredly, the quick running to get back having exhausted him a bit.

"Harry!" Boomed Hagrid, this time however, it was a more emotional tone than anything else. Daphne in the meantime looked ready to drag him off and torture the information out of him. Looking exceptionally creepy with the half dried blood on her irked face that was only cleaned up partly.

"Where in Merlin's beard did you run off to!? One moment I'm helpin' Your friend Daphne here an' the next you're gone!" Hagrid exclaimed in a relieved tone. Trapping him in the strongest bone-crushing hug he had the pleasure of experiencing thus far. Making Daphne smile a bit sadistically as she watched him endure it.

"I'm sorry, Hagrid. I saw Mundungus. He's been stealing stuff out of Sirius' house.." Harry wheezed out of his pressured lungs after he was released, making Daphne's face change to one of comprehension as she likely remembered the events of Harry and Mundungus in Hogsmeade.

"I've heard so too, Harry, but that's no reason ter' just suddenly disappear! I was moments away of informin' the whole Order!" Hagrid said in an unusually stern tone. His big round face set in a serious expression.

"You're right… But I had a score to settle with Mundungus."

"I have no love either for stealin' someone else's stuff like he did, but don't disappear on me Harry." Hagrid said with a sigh, softening again. "Did you finish things up with him then? Because I don't want that ter' happen again!"

"Don't worry." Harry said feeling the locket in his pocket. "We talked things through."

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**Long time no see. I know. **

**Here it is in any case, hope you enjoyed.**

**Guest chapter 18 . Dec 23, 2015: None taken, it's the truth. I simply do my best. **

**Anon chapter 29 . Dec 22, 2015: Thank you for your reviews, very constructive and helpful :)**

**Can't say when next update will be, probably in quite some time again :**

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**The amount he felt from Gaunt's ring had been less at the time, but that was likely because of the protective enchantments Dumbledore put around it. ref to chapt 2**


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